Nurses launch appeal for 'wedding boxes' for hospital ceremonies

A ward sister and her colleagues want to create ‘wedding boxes’ for patients getting married at short notice in their hospital.

The boxes will be filled with special wedding accessories such as bunting, artificial flowers, confetti and champagne flutes to provide the happy couple with the most special day possible.

Patients get married at the hospital because they may be entering their final days or because they are unsure about their prognosis, according to Julieann Woollas, a ward manager in the haematology and oncology unit at Scunthorpe General Hospital.

Her team has often gone the extra mile to decorate a room for ceremonies in the past, but she recently had to ring around hospital departments at the last minute to get flowers and table decorations.

She came up with the idea of wedding boxes and wants them to be available for all hospital departments.

The Health Tree Foundation, which works in partnership with Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, has launched an appeal for donations, ranging from £2 for some confetti to £60 which would pay for silk flowers. The boxes will be supplied to both Scunthorpe General Hospital and Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby.

Ms Woollas said: ‘It is such a special occasion for the couple so we want to be able to make it feel more like a wedding.’

She added: ‘[A wedding] lifts the morale of everybody. Everyone loves a wedding, no matter where it takes place.’

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