The Gift of CHRistmas Giving

While 2020 has been an undeniably strange and difficult year for everyone, the pandemic and various lockdown measures have left some older people feeling particularly lonely and isolated. In our effort to support this older generation, we joined forces with Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and organised the delivery of more than 100 surprise CHRistmas gifts and handwritten cards.

Although we didn’t have the pleasure of wrapping the gifts all together in our offices, as we did in 2019, 12 members of our team did so in their own “bubbles”, but with ample CHRistmas spirit! Our small gifts featured a great range from calendars, to mugs and toiletries, having previously consulted the AgeUK team. Of course, it is not the content that matters but the gesture.

Since we could not deliver the gifts ourselves due to COVID-19, we relied on the amazing AgeUK staff members to hand-deliver all presents and spread the joy on our behalf. We display below some of the quotes the Age UK team has shared with us that really warmed our hearts:

“This is the first Christmas present I’ve had, I will be saving it for Christmas Day” 

Age UK service user and gift recipient

“Thank you Cambridge Healthcare Research, I had the pleasure of delivering to some of these lovely people, they are so grateful for your generosity and kindness. Some of these people would have no other gift or visitors so well done”

Age UK volunteer

“It is really super generous of you and your colleagues to have donated so many gifts! Many thanks again, to everyone in your team, for helping to make Christmas a bit brighter for our service users. It is also lovely for staff to be able to be “Santa’s helper”, as it were, and deliver a gift in person” 

Vivian Beck, Age UK service manager

We really hope that our gifts brought a smile to their recipients and we look forward to supporting AgeUK on future occasions, in line with our commitment to society as well as our Equality and Health values. We wish that in 2021 we can wrap even more gifts and…accompany them with some hugs to their recipients!