Cape Breton mother makes Christmas stockings for kids in the hospital

A Cape Breton woman who is no stranger to spending time in a hospital with a sick child is working this week to bring a little Christmas joy to other kids who will be hospitalized over the holidays.

Nichol MacNeil of Sydney is assembling Christmas stockings for children in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the pediatrics unit of the Cape Breton Regional Hospital.

"We've had a lot of help over the years," she said, "and this is something we just came up with last week. It's really close to us. It means a lot to us, the hospitals, and it just means the world to us because we know what it's like to be in hospitals."

MacNeil is the full-time caregiver to her eight-year-old son, Devon, who has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and suffers from seizures. He also has severe gastroesophageal reflux disease, a chronic digestive disease that makes it difficult for him to keep food down.

Several surgeries have not helped, but MacNeil said Devon's condition has improved slightly as he's grown older.

Her son Sean, 11, who is healthy, is helping her assemble the stockings.

"It's teaching him something valuable in life as well," MacNeil said. "He's been right in there with me, helping me shop for stuff. He thinks it's an awesome idea as well."

MacNeil is hoping others will donate items or filled stockings to her project. She's trying to fill the stockings with items appropriate to the ages of the kids in both hospital units.

"The NICU stockings we're doing are anything baby, from baby blankets to shampoo, anything at all," she said. "Pediatrics, we're going from infant to 17. Anything that fits into a stocking, we'll take."

That could include colouring books, fruit, candy, chocolates and toys, she said.

"The more we have, the better," she said, "and I'm hoping we have a good amount to go up to the hospital with on Saturday and be able to deliver them."