Hearty project has gone on show

BARNSLEY Hospital bosses have created a new installation at the Gawber Road site – after receiving thousands of donations.

During the Covid-19 pandemic Barnsley Hospital received many donations, amongst which were thousands of pairs of knitted hearts.

The idea behind the hearts was to give a matching pair to a patient and their family so as to maintain a connection when visiting was restricted.

Following the pandemic the hospital still had hundreds of hearts in storage.

Such was the volume of hearts, and not wanting to waste them, a creative and enterprising member of the council’s projects team, Sue Burgan, was inspired to take action. A spokesperson for the hospital said: “With support from Barnsley Hospital Charity, project manager Sue set about arranging the hearts in frames with the intention of creating a lasting memory of the compassion, challenges, suffering and loss the pandemic brought.

“Sue has been out delivering the hearts in the past few days along with Barnsley Hospital Chair Sheena McDonnell, and with support from some of our wonderful hospital volunteers.

“Wards and departments have welcomed these mementoes graciously as part of our celebrations fro NHS75, the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service.”