Make A Difference Friday 2024

Article date: 13 December 2024

St Helens Town Hall Assembly Room was used to store thousands of chocolate oranges that have been donated once again before being dropped of at Lansbury Bridge, Willowbrook Hospice, Zoe's Place, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Whiston Hospital and Aintree Hospital for staff to enjoy.

Chris Lamb, from Rainford, started the initiative in 2010 by gifting a chocolate orange to a doctor as a thank you for caring for his late son, Elliott, who sadly passed away just before Christmas that year, aged four, after a courageous battle against Congenital Cytomeglavirus.

Since then as a legacy to Elliott, Chris has collected more than 150,000 chocolate oranges, with an army of volunteers based all over to help him with his cause to ensure NHS heroes up and down the country are able to receive a treat as a thank you in time for Christmas.

Chris, who was unsure whether to carry on this year but had a change of heart to honour what would have been Elliott's 18th birthday year, said:

"This means everything to me. All the people coming down to the town hall to support us, and just remembering Elliott and all the other people who do this around the country - it just makes me so inspired by them, people I've never even met before who get involved.

"It's just incredible really how it's carried on and it seems to get bigger and bigger every year."

Commenting on what made him reconsider after thinking of not doing the appeal this year, Chris said: "I kind of thought to myself, 'I'm doing a quite one this year' but I could never do that. Everyone gets involved and they want to do it so I can't let them down really so we just carry on.

"It's Elliott's anniversary on Sunday and I've got to do something to make us remember him and to carry on that memory.

"The fact that the council does this for us [use the town hall] is incredible because otherwise, I'd spend a week going around collecting all the donations, so this just gives us an opportunity for people to bring their chocolate oranges in one day so we're more efficient. Without the council's support it would be impossible to do it, really."

St Helens Borough Council Leader, Councillor Anthony Burns, who joined the Mayor of St Helens Borough, Councillor Jeanette Banks, and Rainford Brook Lodge Primary School Choir in supporting Chris and the team at St Helens Town Hall today, said:

"It was great to celebrate Make A Difference Friday with Chris and the team to get themselves sorted before going off to numerous care settings across the North West to drop off chocolate oranges which I know is a big boost for the staff who work incredibly hard all year round. The choir from Rainford Brook Lodge were terrific!

"Chris is a real inspiration and a lovely bloke. This initiative, which attracts nationwide attention, is another example of what makes our borough and its people the best."

To mark Make A Difference Friday, the council has also arranged for the Steve Prescott Bridge to be lit orange this evening.