Sutton scooter club rides to King's Mill with more than 200 Christmas presents for children

However, a scooter club from Sutton has helped to ease that burden for the troubled children, by bringing Christmas presents straight to their door.

The Sutton-in-Ashfield Scooter Club started its ‘Prezzies to the Mill’ scheme two years ago, where it collects donations from across our region and takes them straight to King’s Mill Hospital’s children’s ward.

And this year the charitable club’s scheme was bigger and better than ever before – collecting between 200 and 300 gifts to “light up the faces” of the children.

It has been running collection points across Mansfield and Ashfield for the last few months, including at the Tesco store in Oak Tree, Mansfield, as well as the Traveller’s Rest pub in Sutton – where it set off on its ride on December 8.

Robert Wilkins, who helped run the third-annual drop-off event, says it was great to see a “huge amount of community spirit” involved in the donations and vowed next year will be “bigger and better”.

He said: “We had 50 riders and a car full of presents to take to the hospital, it’s something we think is really important.

“A lot of them will probably get better but it’s still nice for them to get these presents and have a smile on their face at a difficult time.

“As well as the children we also donated presents to the nurses this year, because often they don’t get the recognition they deserve.

“Before we left we put all the presents into a room and there must have been between 200 and 300, they literally filled all the tables we had.

“There was a huge amount of community spirit involved, with donations from Krispy Kreme at McArthur Glen as well as boxes at Tesco and the Traveller’s Rest. They deserve a lot of credit.

“It’s amazing to see the community support here, you see a lot of the negatives nowadays so it’s amazing to see people pulling together.”

Nicola Armstrong, play leader on the children’s ward at King’s Mill Hospital, praised the scooter club for its generosity.

She said: “The support and generosity we receive each year from the Sutton-in-Ashfield Scooter Club is amazing and really brightens up a child’s stay with us over the Christmas period.

“These kind of donations really do make a difference and the children’s faces when they see the gifts is unforgettable.

“We’ve already had some generous gift donations for the children who will be spending Christmas with us and we know there are more to come from local groups and businesses.

“We want to thank everyone who has been involved this year for their generous donations, it really does make a difference.”