THANK you messages and Christmas gifts were delivered to staff at Winchester hospital last month.

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT), which also runs Andover and Basingstoke hospitals, received the gifts.

Beauman Chong, a hospital volunteer and a HHFT governor, said the recent surge in people catching Covid and the government’s drive to get the nation vaccinated have prompted a lot of his friends asking how they could show their appreciation to hospital staff.

Beauman and his friends set about clearing the shelves at a local supermarket and delivered 151 individually boxed Christmas sponge puddings and panettones, 270 satsumas and boxes of hand cream to the hospital, with grateful thanks to frontline workers there.