A three-year old girl and her friends have been raising money for children at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Earlier this year, Emilia from South Cerney underwent a series of tests at the hospital.

She was luckily given the all-clear, but during her time in hospital came across many children who weren't so lucky.

Emilia's mum, Charlie, said: "This year we have decided to set up a project to help those children and any other children going through difficult tests, procedures and diagnosis.

"Children love soft toys, and this can sometimes give them comfort, so we decided to run a project that raises money to buy brand new soft toys to be given out to the children in the ward."

They started by making a few Christmas decorations and hoped to raise maybe £50 to buy soft toys for the children.

Charlie continued: "As a parent, I wanted to also support the parents, as there is nothing worse than when your child is sick. We really hope this helps the whole family in some small way."

The project started small, but quickly grew. Some of Emilia's friends wanted to help, so there were four little Christmas helpers painting decorations and the orders flooded in.

Christmas Creations 4 Kids sold 168 decorations, raising £448, which was enough to buy 117 toys. These have now been delivered to the hospital, and some have already been given out the children on the ward.

Charlie also asked friends and family to donate second hand toys. Some of these were given to the school and play centre at the hospital, for children undergoing long term-treatment to play with.

Anything the hospital couldn't use was donated to The Pied Piper Appeal charity shop to be sold.

Charlie said: "Additionally we raised £60 to be given directly to the Pied Piper, as we also wanted to support this amazing charity and the work they do in the hospital."

Because of its success, Christmas Creations 4 Kids is going to be an annual project. It has Facebook and Instagram pages and plans to get more local community groups, pre-schools and local families involved for 2026.