Warren Stanley has paid a visit to Queen’s Hospital to hand over a cheque for £2,150 to our charity – to be spent on increasing capacity on the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) to help keep local families together.

Warren, who has recently taken over the Railway Hotel in Hornchurch, wanted to make the donation to our NICU in thanks for the great care his daughter Caden, now six, received. She was born at full-term but was rushed to the unit with breathing problems and spent two-and-a-half-weeks there.

He said: “You see all these tiny things in incubators, and the care they all have is unreal. The staff were so hard working, so dedicated.

“This is our first donation and we’re excited to raise even more money for this wonderful unit.”

The money will be spent on additional facilities to help more families, Oscar Soliven, unit matron, added: “If we do not have space for a new delivery, they will be rushed to another unit. If mum is poorly too, we have to split the family up and we don’t like doing that.

“We want to make sure as many little lives get the best start in life as we possibly can.”

The money was raised by generous punters buying tickets to the pub’s New Year’s Eve bash, as well as a collection tin for small change.

To continue supporting our charity, Warren has become the first publican to put our new charity collection boxes on his bar.

The brightly coloured yellow and turquoise boxes will remain there to encourage customers to donate and help make our hospitals better for our patients.

Warren will also continue to fundraise for our charity through a series of events such as quiz nights and entertainment.

If you’d like to support the King George and Queen’s Hospital Charity, contact our team on 01708 43500, extension 4894, you can also check out the latest events on Facebook.

Pictured are Warren and Oscar with the cheque.