Girl donates her 'most valued possession' to NHS

A seven-year-old girl has donated her "most valued possession" a bag of precious gems to help her local hospital "buy things for the patients".

Eve O'Hanlon placed her "super precious white gems" in an envelope and asked her mother to give it to the hospital.

Nicola O'Hanlon works at the Royal United Hospital in Bath and said: "Eve knows her gems are worth far more than money and so knows they could help."

Colleague Roxy Thomas, said: "We've put them on eBay to see what happens."

Ms O'Hanlon, who is an operating department practitioner, said her daughter was "aware that there are lots more people in hospital at the moment".

"Eve has a little chest with all her precious gems in and the super precious gems are white," she said.

"A couple of weeks ago, she handed me an envelope addressed to the hospital with a hand-drawn stamp on it and she had put some of her very precious gems in it."

She said it was so the hospital could buy things like "beds, rocking chairs and equipment".

"For her the gems are much more precious than money and it melted my heart," she said.

Roxanne Thomas, who also works at the hospital, said it was "so lovely and heart warming".

The staff decided to put the gems on eBay to "see what happens".

"For any young person to offer what they consider to be their most valued possession is remarkable," she said.

"So we thought we would see if we could in fact trade it in."

So far 15 bidders have pushed the price up to £41.00, but Ms Thomas said they had also set up a JustGiving page.

"Lots of people asked if they could just make a donation so that we can go back to Eve and show her just what a random act of kindness can achieve."

A hospital spokesperson said: "We would like to thank Eve for her wonderful donation of precious gems.

"It's so generous and everyone at the hospital wants to send her a big 'thank you' and let her know how grateful they are."