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A Burton food giant has been showing its support for the town’s hospital as it donated £300 worth of toiletries.

Staff from Kerry Foods visited Burton Hospitals chief nurse Paula Gardner and Macmillan palliative care cancer nurse specialist Chris Cheadle to donate the toiletries to the palliative care team.

Previously Kerry Foods has supported the Burton Queens Hospital Trust by donating presents to the children’s wards at Christmas and Easter, they donate more than 20 meals per week to the Snowdrop Suite at the Belvedere Road hospital and they have donated £500 towards the Queen’s Hospital coronary care unit.

Ms Gardner said: "This donation from Kerry Foods is absolutely wonderful and we can’t thank them enough for their continued generosity.

"Relatives who stay unexpectedly with their loved ones at a deeply distressing time are very appreciative of the personal touch that these packs provide. This donation will enable us to continue to provide comfort packs to families staying with loved ones approaching the end of their lives. Our partnership with Kerry Foods goes from strength to strength and I look forward to our future projects together."

Steph Whyman, from Kerry Foods, said the team will continue to collect the toiletries for the hospital.

She said: "In our first visit to Queen’s Hospital last year we were told about the comfort packs that the palliative care team put together for those who are visiting their families, and we were blown away by the thought and effort that the nurses put in to accommodate the family’s needs and not just the patients.

"We were told that while monetary donations are extremely helpful, it can be difficult for the teams to find time to purchase the items that they need, so we decided to find the time to do it for them.

"All of the donations came directly from either our employees from their weekly shop, or were purchased by our HR assistants Danni and Harleigh from funds raised through our charity collection rocket, and we are very thankful to our staff for caring about this initiative and making these donations.

"We will continue to collect toiletries throughout the year to make regular contributions to the comfort packs.

"We are proud to continue our support for Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by any means that we are able to, and it was a pleasure to visit the palliative care team and the chief nurse to see how our donations will make a difference - we are grateful to them for making the time to share this with us."