Two Essex County girls are delivering hundreds of pyjamas to kids who have to celebrate Christmas in the hospital.
Megan Patrick, 8, and her friend, Lauren Meadows, 10, are donating over 600 pairs of pyjamas for the kids on the Windsor Regional Hospital paediatric floor, at Ronald McDonald House in London, at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington, and also to Little Hands for a Cause and the Fight Like Mason Foundation.
The idea for the campaign started after Patrick was diagnosed with leukemia on Christmas Eve 2018, and they had to spend the night in the hospital to begin immediate treatments.
Megan's mom, Mellissa Patrick, says Patrick, says it always stuck with her that she didn't have her daughter's Christmas pyjamas the night they ended up in the hospital.
"It was Christmas Eve; we had absolutely nothing with us but the clothes on our backs, nothing. We were in London all by ourselves," she says.
Patrick says it's so hard to be in the hospital on a normal day, but at Christmas time, it's heartbreaking.
"Everything you think you know about the world just shatters around you. You're not home, you're not with your family, you're not doing your traditions, and I just want to bring a little tiny tradition that might have been forgotten by these parents because I was that mom. I was that mom staring at the sky that night wondering what the heck is going on with our lives," she says.
In April 2022, Megan was diagnosed with leukemia for a second time, and the pyjama campaign was put on hold, but in 2023, Megan's friend Lauren stepped in by asking that in lieu of birthday gifts, friends and family donate pyjamas for the kids in the hospital.
Meadows says it makes her feel good to help people like Megan.
"I heard the story about her, and that when she got diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve, I wanted to help spread kindness to the kids in the hospital because I know that's really hard for them," she says.
The campaign also collected over $1,000 in cash donations that will be used to help buy additional pyjamas.
