SPREADING the joy and merriment at Christmas is a full time job as SOPHIE BROWNSON discovers when she takes on the role of a fairy at ST DAVID’S HOSPICE CHRISTMAS GROTTO.

THE magical Santa’s grotto installed in Kingsway Shopping Centre in Newport helps raise more than £10,000 each year for St David’s Hospice Care which provides free care to more than 3,200 people suffering from cancer and other life threatening illnesses in the community.

So it seemed a worthy task to don a fairy’s costume and parade through Newport’s Kingsway Shopping Centre on a Monday morning – all in the name of charity.

Arriving at the grotto I met with the St David’s Hospice team of volunteers who work on the grotto throughout the festive period, taking photos of the children with Santa and collecting proceeds for the hospice.

The grotto is staffed by St David’s Hospice Care volunteers including people employed locally who are ‘volunteered’ by their employers.

They give their time for free and help Santa to meet more than 1,500 children during the festive period.

Meeting with Franca Nigro, the St David’s hands-on co-ordinator of the Christmas grotto, she told me the importance of my role.

“We are so grateful to The Kingsway Centre for what they do each and every year for us, especially the support given with Santa’s grotto,” she said.

“The role for the Christmas Fairy is mainly to keep the children happy and help Santa give out the gifts to the children.”

Santa’s grotto is a central feature in the Kingsway Centre from late November until Christmas Eve providing local children with an opportunity to meet Santa and for their parents to donate to a worthy cause.

After being shown around the grotto I have a quick chat with ‘Santa’, also known as Stuart Baker ,who has been a volunteer for five years.

“Just talk to the children,” he advises me.

“Ask them what they want for Christmas and just be pleasant and nice to them and introduce the children to me.

“Sometimes you might have to take over the till and take photos and if it is busy keep it orderly.”

With this advice in mind my first child arrives at the grotto wanting to meet Santa, and me, the Christmas Fairy.

I quickly realise that this is not the case however, as many children seem reluctant to meet me.

Most of them just do their best to ignore me and focus on Santa - for he’s the real star of the show.

But I have no choice but to carry on, greeting the children and trying to adopt the fairy role as best I can.

Some of the children seem to take pity on me and allow me to hand them presents and pose for pictures with them, but you can tell they are not convinced.

Asking Santa about the success of my predecessors I’m told often it’s an elf that does my job, so I can understand their confusion.

Part of my costume which comprises of a tutu, wand, halo and wings, also includes glitter- otherwise known as fairy dust.

Sprinkling this around the grotto, I try to seem fairy like to my would-be impressed visitors but without much success. I guess my biker boots and tutu combo don’t cut it.

Taking a break from my ‘strenuous’ duties I chat to Franca and discover the grotto’s goals.

“We are hoping to do even better this year than ever before in terms of the funds raised,” she said.

“Collecting more than £10,000, especially at the time of an economic squeeze, is amazing, but we are looking to do even better this year to raise vital funds to pay for the services which we provide for free and which are gratefully received by our patients and desperately needed throughout our community.

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our volunteers who year after year help to make Santa’s grotto such a special place to visit over the Christmas period.”

Tidying up, Michael Hine, Kingsway Centre Manager, told me about the importance of the grotto.

“The Kingsway Centre’s Santa’s grotto has been sited at the centre for very many years bringing joy to countless children and their parents during that time,” he said.

“The spirit of Christmas is all about giving and we are delighted to support such a worthy and local cause as St David’s Hospice Care who provide vital hospice support to patients with life-threatening illnesses throughout our community.”

For those who don’t know, St David’s Hospice Care has been providing community-based hospice care for people with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses, and their families, since 1979, living within Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and within certain areas of South and Mid Powys.

In June 2013 St David’s Hospice Care took over the management of St Anne’s Hospice which means that, should the need arise, our patients can receive care at the in-patient hospice in Newport.

The need for our services continues to increase year on year and last year 2,171 patients were referred to St David’s Hospice Care, 567 (26.1percent) of whom had a non-cancer diagnosis.

Last year 61,760.75 hours of care were provided by St David’s Hospice at Home service thereby enabling patients to remain in their own homes if that is their choice.

Over 90 per cent of patients who received Hospice at Home Care were able to die at home, or their usual place of residence (UK average is 25 percent).

The level of care provided by St David’s Hospice Care does have financial implications for the charity. With the addition of St Anne’s Hospice it will cost us approximately £7 million each year to provide our services and we receive less than 20 per cent of this from the NHS. In order to raise much needed funds we have 36 charity shops, a weekly lottery, and organise many fundraising events throughout the year.

After a morning of posing for photos, greeting the children, helping Santa hand out presents and tidying the grotto my work here is done. Next year Santa, I promise to be better.

For more details on the event call 01633 851051 or visit stdavidshospicecare.org