THREE siblings who have donated more than 4,000 books to children in hospitals are gearing up to donate more this festive period.
Max Hunter, 12, Liam Hunter, ten, and Lily-Mai, six, from Elmstead Market, will be taking on their fifth annual book drive where they will donate books to children staying in Essex hospitals over the Christmas holiday.
Similarly, to the past four editions, Max, Liam and Lily-Mai will be donating brand new books to the children's wards of Colchester Hospital, Ipswich Hospital, Southend Hospital, and West Suffolk Hospital.
In total so far, the children have donated around 4,500 books with approximately 800 to 900 of them going to Colchester Hospital.
The idea first came to fruition in 2019 as Max and Liam are both book lovers.
For its first outing, the children donated roughly 500 books, but it has increasingly grown year after year.
Lorraine Hunter is the mother of Max, Liam, Lily-Mai and she is delighted with the generous work the kids have done.
She said: “I’m very proud of the children, they want to do it year on year, we always start collecting in October and they were asking in the summer whether we are going to do it this year.
“They are book worms, they love collecting, and seeing all the different types of books that are donated, they are so well received by the wards, it makes the children happy knowing they have helped.”
All books donated must be new due to infection control in the hospital wards.
The children are thankful for any donation; however, Lorraine has specified that they are hopefully looking out for certain books to donate this December.
She said: “Lily-Mai has been reading The Smeds and the Smoos, so she is really keen for Julia Donaldson books as she has found out a lot of her books have the Gruffalo hidden in them.
“Max and Liam are hoping for books from the authors David Walliams and David Baddiel.”
On the week commencing December 18, the family of five will deliver all the donated books to the hospital.
You can donate by contacting Lorraine through the children’s Facebook page by clicking the link, tinyurl.com/f25txnmt or via the Amazon Wishlist page.
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