Santa visits boy who spent Christmastime in hospital
The kindness of a community has helped a boy celebrate a late Christmas – after he missed the original date due to Covid.
Cody Ralley, who was admitted to hospital a few days before Christmas after having fallen ill, was treated to a visit from Santa Claus and his sleigh.
The seven-year-old, who is autistic and is classed as non-verbal, was also diagnosed as type 1 diabetic and spent two weeks in hospital over the festive period, having tested positive for Covid-19.
His grandmother, Julie Corr, said it had been very sad to see her grandson miss out on Christmas, so she decided to find a way to help Cody celebrate at home.
She said: “I was upset about the situation with Cody and started to think about what I could do for this little boy who missed everything.
“I thought to myself that he shouldn’t have to miss anything, so I went on Facebook and asked if anyone would like to volunteer to be Santa for the day.
“I then had someone reply to say yes as they had the sleigh, they had the reindeer and they had Santa and they volunteered to do it for charity.”
The visit to Cody’s home was done as a socially-distanced visit, with Cody able to pose with his grandmother next to the lit-up sleigh, which belonged to Tipton Community Association and was organised by a local woman, Karen Simms.
Mrs Corr said it was wonderful to see the community come together to give Cody the Christmas he had originally missed out on and she could tell he was thrilled as well.
She said: “He can’t really show expressions because of his autism, but I could tell he was so happy to see Santa.
"We’ve had such a rotten year and it’s made such a difference to see him enjoy this.”
