The Bubble Foundation's Gill Wheeldon 'helped advance bone marrow transplantation'

Former patients of the Great North Children's Hospital have gathered in Byker, Newcastle, to celebrate the achievements of a charity worker who "helped advance bone marrow transplantation".

Gill Wheeldon is the head fundraiser at The Bubble Foundation, which started supporting the hospital's children's bone marrow transplant unit in 1992, and is retiring after 32 years in the role.

Gill told ITV News Tyne Tees: "I’m very emotional. I’m surprised and seeing parents and previous patients and old staff, it’s been really overwhelming. You know, it was like any other ward in the NHS. There was never enough money to go around and I looked at the parents and I thought I hoped if I was a parent in that position, somebody would help me, so that was how it all started."

After seeing so many former patients she has supported over the years, she added: "It became a mission and I wouldn’t take no from anybody and if I got a no then I went somewhere else and looking back now, and I see these children here today, I am proud of what I’ve achieved."

Professor Andrew Cant of Newcastle University was the consultant who founded the "Bubble Unit". He said the charity work Gill has delivered has been impactful by supporting children and their parents and fundraising for specialist equipment, but he said the medical research she's raised money for and funded has been pioneering.

He said: "Without that research, we couldn’t improve what we do and even better than that, the money that the foundation has raised has been seedcorn. You fund £100,000 worth of research, you get results. You can then get a much bigger grant from the medical research. Without the Bubble Foundation, none of that could have been possible and we wouldn’t have advanced bone marrow transplantation in the way that we have."

Former patients told ITV News: "Without her, I wouldn’t be living today and all she’s done is really well and really good."

Another man said: "It means the world to me, my family, my children. Without the work that Gill has done, I wouldn’t be here standing talking to you today."

One parent said: "It’s the support, it’s the emotional support as well. We would hear from Gill constantly throughout the years and she’s always asking for Oscar as well."

Gill will retire in Jersey, but said she will always stay in touch with The Bubble Foundation as it continues to support the hospital.