Easter eggs for Fairfield Hospital stolen from supermarket donation point

Date published: 11 April 2022

Over 100 Easter eggs collected for Fairfield Hospital have been stolen from a donation point in Bury.

Rescue cat Spritzer and her owner Heléna Abrahams have run ‘Spritzer’s Easter Egg Challenge’ for the last few years, collecting chocolate eggs for the patients at Fairfield.

The black and white rescue cat has become a firm favourite at the hospital, where she spends her days visiting patients on the mental health ward, and documenting her adventures on social media.

For several years, Heléna and Spritzer have used the kitty’s fame to collect Easter eggs for the hospital with supermarkets in Heywood and Bury hosting donation points before Heléna and her group collect the eggs for delivery.

However, when Heléna arrived at the Bury Tesco at Woodfield Retail Park on Peel Way on Monday morning (11 April), she discovered that someone had brazenly stolen the donations under the guise of being with the campaign.

Heléna said: “Someone has gone in and stolen the donations by telling staff they were collecting them for us.

“We’ve gone in today to collect them so we can deliver them tomorrow, but there’s about 10-15 eggs now. There was over 100 so they’ve either left some or these have been donated since.

“I don’t understand how someone could stoop so low. The patients deserve those eggs and we’ve worked so hard to get them this year. I can’t explain how upset I am.”

CCTV footage in store is being reviewed to try and locate the thief.

A first delivery of Easter eggs was made to the mental health ward – where Spritzer regularly visits patients – on Saturday (9 April). The rest of the eggs were to be distributed around the remaining hospital wards.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed the incident has been reported.

Tesco has also been contacted for comment.

Easter egg donations can be made to Heléna’s cottage in the grounds of Fairfield Hospital (9 Broad Oak Terrace, Bury BL9 7ST), or donations can be made via PayPal (helenaabrahams@hotmail.com) so replacements can be purchased.