Child cancer patients get toys in goodwill gesture

Child cancer patients in the Paediatric Oncology Ward at Hamad General Hospital (HGH), a member of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), have received donated toys and activity items from a nine-year-old boy.
Finn Froud, who began a charity drive by running 100 miles in 100 days, after discovering that his 11-year-old cousin had been diagnosed with leukaemia, has donated the gifts, bought with the money he raised during his campaign.
With his parents, Finn presented age-appropriate gift packs to 21 inpatients aged between 18 months to 13 years old, who are currently in HGH with various forms of cancer.
They visited each of the children in their rooms, delivering boxes of toys and activity packs in a fun-filled afternoon.
HMC’s chief communications officer Ali Abdulla al-Khater said the donation was a generous gesture and the children were delighted to receive their gifts.
“Finn has brought some brightness to children while they are struggling with serious illness,” he said.
“This fundraising effort and donation should be applauded as a fine altruistic gesture by a very thoughtful boy which has been gratefully received by these young patients and their families,” al-Khater added.
Finn had initially planned to raise around QR1,600 to buy toys for the cancer ward at the hospital, but eventually attracted a much larger QR78,000 worth of donations over the past six months through Compassionate Crowdfunding, a free online fundraising service.
As an added bonus, Virgin Megastore offered Finn a 15% discount on purchases made at their Doha store, according to Finn’s mother, Ann-Marie Froud, who added that support has been very positive.  
“The response to the campaign has been fantastic, and it was great to see locals running with Finn during some of the Doha legs. We had 500 people running with us for the final leg of the 100 miles,” said Ann-Marie.
HGH is a tertiary-level care facility that provides treatment for a number of specialities and subspecialities including paediatrics.