Children warded at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) today were brought some Christmas cheer from three gift-bearing Santa Claus.

Though instead of squeezing through the hospital chimneys at night, the Santas entered through the door of UMMC's paediatrics department.

The three Santa Claus then proceeded to hand out 135 toys at six different children's wards, including one for the terminally ill.

"Seeing the children go jolly-jolly, that's my profit. That’s what I get from it, that's worth a lot more than money.

"The more sponsors I can get, the more I can do for the kids," said the spokesperson for the trio, Terry Adkins, an expatriate from the United States.

He explained that this is the first time that the "Santa volunteers" programme visited hospitals in the country, though they hope to visit three or four public hospitals next year, if they get enough sponsors.

He said similar programmes have been very successful in the US and hoped the same for Malaysia.

More people should visit

Noor Diana Ismail, the eleven-year head nurse for the gastroenterology and general illnesses ward, said handling children requires skill and patience.

"There are many challenges here, especially when handling babies. Babies need more attention and require lots of treatment.

"Different children need different things, it takes about a week or two to establish the bond between the nurses, doctors and children," the eleven-year veteran said.

She hopes more people visit the oncology ward as many children there are terminally ill and may not be able to live for a long time.

"It makes them happy that people are visiting them, or receiving toys like today," she said.

She said that due to good reputation of UMMC's children's wards, the hospital has been receiving more and more paediatric patients.

Time to give back

This special programme was made possible by modelling agency JCY Models in partnership with The Giving Bank, a US-based charity.

While the toys were sponsored by Toy City, Avenue K, The Mines and several other retailers.

Jezron Selvaraj, JCY Models consultant for sales and events, said they will definitely do this again next year on a bigger scale.

"Christmas is all about giving. We have always received, so it's time for us to give back.

"We just wanted to head down to the paediatric unit and spread the love, joy and cheer to all the kids who have been admitted.

"We also hope that other people will take part in this initiative to help spread the love and joy to the kids," said Jezron.