WEST Ham players delivered presents and helped spread the sprit of Christmas when they visited Richard House Children’s Hospice in Beckton and spent time with staff, the youngsters and their families.

Richard House is one of the club’s chosen charities so the footballers wanted to make a special visit to the hospice before Christmas. Premier league stars Mark Noble, Tal Ben Haim, Jack Collison, Victor Obinna, Kieron Dyer, Peter Kurucz and Pablo Barrera put smiles on the kids, families and staff’s faces.

Mark Noble said: “It’s fantastic to come here and spend time with the kids – they deserve to feel special, and making them smile is a pleasure for us.”

Victor Obinna said: “I love being around children, I’m always surrounded by my nieces and nephews when I am back home in Nigeria and it makes me happy, so I really enjoyed coming out here and seeing the kids – especially with the difficulties they face, it’s great to be able to make them happy.”

Peter Ellis, chief executive of Richard House Children’s hospice, added “At Richard House we aim to always give our children and families positive experiences, and that’s exactly what today was about, you witnessed it on the children and families faces, they really enjoyed themselves. And we really appreciated the fact that the players took money out of their own pockets and donated over �2000 to the hospice.”

Richard House provides much needed care and services to children with life-limiting, life-threatening and complex healthcare conditions and their families from London and the surrounding boroughs. It needs to raise �3.1 million in order to provide vital services each year.

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