Christmas For CAMHS is a Bath-based charity who provide ‘Christmas in a box’ for children and young people who are inpatients on child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) wards across the UK over the festive period. Our charity was founded by Dr Ro Bevan. While working as a doctor back in 2015, she saw first hand that during the festive season hospitals supporting children with physical illnesses were showered with huge amounts of gifts and festive treats - as they should be. The following year she was working on a CAMHS ward and she was shocked by the contrast - there wasn’t a single donation. It was like Christmas had never arrived. This didn’t feel fair, so Christmas For CAMHS was born! CAMHS wards rely on us to provide festive magic - we were the sole donor for over 94% of CAMHS wards in 2025.

 

Our goal is to make sure the young people on the wards, who are experiencing mental ill health, distress or trauma, feel thought-about, special, remembered and included during what can be a really difficult time to be in hospital. This can - and does - save lives. Our boxes include small gifts and sensory toys for young people to keep as well as decorations, activities a wellbeing advent calendar and a gift (such as a new game, art materials, sports equipment or jigsaws) for young people on the ward to enjoy together.