Hundreds of children in the hospital over Christmas Eve received holiday pajamas thanks to a local duo.
In 2018, Megan Patrick was diagnosed with leukemia on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas in the hospital without holiday pajamas. After recovering, her family started a pajama drive for both the Windsor and London hospitals.
The drive was paused in 2022 after her leukemia returned, but in 2023 her friend Lauren Meadows helped bring it back.
This year was the 4th annual 'Megan and Lauren's Pajama Extravaganza', and the girls collected and distributed over 1,000 pairs of pajamas.
Megan's mom, Mellissa Patrick, says they were not expecting the response they received.
"It was over 1,000 pairs of pajamas, around 1,025. It was just incredible how many pajamas we were able to give out this year."
Patrick says they were able to spread the pajamas to those in need.
"Windsor Regional Hospital, the Ronald McDonald House in Windsor, Erie Shores, LHSC, and the Ronald McDonald House in London, and the Ronald McDonald House in Toronto, and this year it was super exciting because we've never done this before... we actually added another Ronald McDonald and we did Hamilton too."
She says the girls were so grateful for all of the donations.
"It was good to see the pajamas come in, they know what it's going for, they know how important this is, and they're both very, very excited to see such a huge result this year."
In 2024, over 600 pairs were donated.