Boy's sponsored silence raises £5k for hospital

Freddie with his sister Mabel and their parents donating toys to the children's oncology unit at Royal Stoke University Hospital

A nine-year-old has raised almost £5,000 for the hospital that cared for his little sister.

Freddie from Stafford staged a sponsored silence to thank the staff at Staffordshire Children’s Hospital, Royal Stoke, where Mabel, four, has been treated for leukaemia.

He managed to complete a whole day at school without making a sound, his family said.

The money will go towards improving the patient experience in the children's oncology unit, said University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) Charity.

Toys and games

"The silence went good, but there were times when my teacher was asking me questions and I had to write the answers down on a whiteboard," said Freddie.

His mother Heather said: "Even when I picked him up on the playground, he wouldn’t talk to me until he walked through the school gates."

He came up with the idea for the silence himself, she added, after Mabel was diagnosed with leukaemia in October, less than a month after starting school.

The family have donated toys and games to the oncology unit, as well as buying more fish for the fish tank in the playroom.

The money raised through Freddie's sponsored silence would also go towards new furniture for the unit, said the UHNM Charity.

"We were thrilled to hear that Freddie had decided to take on his sponsored silence for his sister Mabel," said children's oncology clinical nurse specialist Julie Eaten.

Staff wanted to thank him and his family "for helping to improve the experience of patients and their loved ones who receive treatment here," she added.