Toy donation brings smiles to faces of Little Life Warriors

It's amazing what a simple toy can do.

Employees from Macquarie stopped by Prince of Wales Hospital this week to deliver more than 200 toys to the Little Life Warrior Society, a mutual support group for children with cancer or who have recovered from the deadly disease.

Staff from the financial institution carried boxes and bags of goodies, including games, stuffed animals and action figures, into the Little Life Warrior Society's activity room, which is inside the Sha Tin hospital. There to greet the Macquarie gift-bearers were Dr Matthew Shing Ming-kong, one of the founders of the society, and several children who are receiving outpatient treatment.

The Little Life Warrior Society was selected as an Operation Santa Claus beneficiary a couple of years ago, and the group used funds received to help build the activity room.

The society is again a beneficiary of the annual holiday appeal and is seeking to extend its services in Hong Kong and on the mainland, where it already has five offices. Macquarie - with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation, the company's philanthropic arm - is already donating money to Operation Santa Claus this year, but the company wanted to do something extra-special.

'It's good to engage, it's good to come out and see what's going on in the community and to offer something back,' said Paul Scanlon, Macquarie's head of communications in Asia. 'That's why I would say to people: 'Get involved and see what you can do.''