Calgary kids in hospital benefit from stuffed animals [Video]

A young teen is making sure kids are comforted in the emergency ward of Calgary’s South Health Campus.

Patrick Hanley, 13 years old, started collecting stuffies to hand out on Christmas Eve 10 years ago and now it’s become a family tradition.

“I’m trying to make sure that every kid that goes into hospital, that aren’t as fortunate as I was and didn’t have stuffies, can be feel comforted while they’re in such a rough place,” Patrick told CTV News.

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When he was four years old, his parents rushed him to the hospital with a croup cough.

“He was a preemie,” said Heather Hanley, Patrick’s mom.

“So, we always panic when you know something happens with the lungs because he came two months early, he is a Christmas baby, he was supposed to be a Valentine’s baby.”

Patrick remembers that it was a frightening …