Youngster donates birthday gifts to Forth Valley Royal Hospital Children's Ward

Young Ciaran Krykant generously decided to hand over bags full of presents given to him for his seventh birthday to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital Children’s Ward.

The Larbert Primary pupil had told his fellow P2 classmates he intended to give something back to the service after its staff helped to take care of his three-year-old brother Conrad after mum Catherine experienced complications during pregnancy.

And the 29 youngsters who joined Ciaran to celebrate his birthday on June 1 were more than willing to help out.

After presenting nurses with the bundle of toys, Ciaran reflected on his thoughftul act.

He said: “I feel happy. I decided to give the presents to children who need them.

“So far it’s my best birthday. It’s awesome.”

Seeing how pleased ward staff were with his donation left the Maddiston youngster eager to return with more birthday gifts in the future.

When asked if he would like to repeat his kind act, Ciaran added: “Yeah, I think so. I’m going to come back with presents.”

Proud dad Peter (41) praised his son for his caring gesture and said: “It’s fantastic.

“He has so many toys so he was more than willing to donate the extra toys to the kids and when we asked him he didn’t think twice about it. Ciaran was really open to it straight away.

“It was a really difficult pregnancy and we got fantastic support and care from the hospital all the way through with extra scans.

“Although Ciaran was a natural birth, his mum had to have a C section with Conrad because of complications but all the way through the support was fantastic.

“It just makes you really proud to see that your son has that giving attitude.

“Both his mum and myself have tried to instil that generosity into him and it clearly shows in his school reports too.”

Peter added: “It’s great to be giving back. Ciaran likes to give, he’s just everything you’d want a seven-year-old boy to be: kind and considerate and caring.

“I think he knows what he’s doing is a really cool thing to do.”

Elaine Campbell, staff nurse at Forth Valley Royal Hospital Children’s Ward, thanked the family for their donation on behalf of the unit.

She said: “It means a lot to staff that we’ve got these toys and gifts in the cupboard because on a daily basis we have lots of kids that come through the doors for various treatments.

“We give these gifts out as a reward for being brave because a lot of kids find it very traumatic to have tests done on them and their blood taken.”