THE generosity of shoppers in Worcester has brought smiles to the faces of children at Worcestershire Royal Hospital after toys were donated for them.

Customers at Sainsbury’s in Blackpole and St John’s donated a total of 88 toys during its appeal between October 30 and November 6, which were then donated to the Riverbank children’s ward at the hospital.

Sainsbury’s staff were overwhelmed by the amount of toys donated during the appeal, which were presented to children and staff on the Riverbank ward on Wednesday.

Sainsbury’s PR associates, Chris Weston and Louise Shaw, who organised the appeal, said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to all our customers and staff for their generosity.

“We were stunned by the number of donations we received, we ended up filling a couple of trolleys in each store.”

Sheena Haggitt, play specialist at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, said: “We would like to thank Sainsbury’s for thinking of us over Christmas and for donating all these toys that will bring lots of smiles to the faces of the children – and staff.”

Customers across Worc-ester were asked to donate the toys as part of a regional appeal, which were then donated to local hospitals or charities.

The idea came about after stores in a neighbouring region collected more than 4000 new toys in 2011 from colleagues and customers, which were then donated them to Birmingham’s Child-ren’s Hospital.

The toys did not have to be bought from Sainsbury’s stores but customers were asked that the toys were new to prevent contamination.