Sheffield Children’s Hospital Christmas lights: Little Margo Taylor turns on lights and brings helipad closer

The youngster pushed the button on the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Christmas lights tonight to cheers and applause from delighted supporters of the well-loved hospital and the charity which helps support it.

Margo was among scores of youngsters lined up on Western Bank as the sponsored snowflakes lights illuminated the frontage of the hospital again, part of a fundraising tradition that goes back to 2004, and which this year has raised over £360,000 already – money that will go towards building a helipad on the roof of the building, to allow children to arrive there by helicopter. At present, helicopters have to land over the road in Weston Park.

Margo’s dad, Jack, works for one of the charity’s major supporters, One Stop.

He said: “A lot of our stores have been fundraising to sponsor a snowflake this year. My daughter has come along to push the button and she’s very excited. I think it’s officially Christmas once the Children’s Hospital lights are on.”

He said Margo had been talking about pushing the button all day.

John Armstrong, chief executive of the Children’s Hospital Charity, said: ”We’re so grateful to all our supporters who have made this happen. They sponsor each of the snowflakes so without their support we wouldn’t be here tonight.

“It’s been going on over 10 years, but we started with a really small number of snowflakes, and it’s really grown to the number of snowflakes that we’ve got this year, which adorn the whole side of the hospital from A&E and all the way down outside the main entrance to the hospital.”

He said the response had been fantastic, despite the pressures people were under with the cost of living crisis. “We’ve been overwhelmed how well we’ve been supported again this year,” he added.

The much-loved display was established in 2004 and has now raised more than £1.3m in the last decade alone. Snowflakes light up the Trust’s sites across the city, from Western Bank where the hospital sits, to the Ryegate Children’s Centre and the Becton Centre for Children and Young People.

Thanks to charity partners hosting decorations on the hospital charity’s behalf, there are also snowflakes on Sheffield City Hall, St John’s Church Owlerton, Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre, the Alhambra Shopping Centre in Barnsley, and the Homes-by-Holmes building in Chesterfield, allowing even more money to be raised.

The money raised this year will support the appeal to build a life-saving new helipad at the hospital. Sheffield Children’s is one of only five major trauma centres for children in England, but at the moment air ambulances land in the park opposite, with critically-ill patients stretchered across the busy A57 after waiting for the traffic lights to change.

The hospital charity is now over two thirds of the way to its target for the helipad and hopes to complete the fundraising by the spring. Should everything go to plan with the project, officials hope it might be in place by this time next year.