PATIENTS with learning disabilities have been knitting quilts to give to a children’s unit at an underprivileged hospital in Cuba.

They will be delivered in person by five staff members from 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust at the end of this month.

The trust employees will also present £400, raised by 12 patients in a sponsored bike ride, to a psychiatric rehabilitation unit in Havana Old Town.

A further £500 was raised with a Cuban-themed party night, personal donations from staff and with additional sponsored cycling.

The money will be given to the Dr Mario Munoz Monroy Hospital, in Colon, where it will be used to pay for equipment and medicine.

Dermot Allister, forensic social worker, said: “As well as having a clear benefit to the Cuban people, our project is helping to make our patients aware that they are not alone in having mental ill health or learning disabilities and that there are people in other countries who have these and other similar conditions.”