A SPECIAL guest presented staff at Victoria Hospital with an updated vein finder on behalf on an Aberdour charity.

The Cookie Monster paid a visit to the staff in the Children’s Ward in Kirkcaldy to present them with the device that was donated by The Cookie Jar Foundation. 

Set up in memory of Christopher ‘Cookie’ Coutts who passed away at the age of 19 after a two-year battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2013, the charity is devoted to providing vein-finders for nearby hospitals. 

Debbie Coutts, Christopher's mother and founder of the foundation, said: "We have had brilliant feedback from medical staff along with parents whose children have benefited from using the vein finder and know how it is so important for patients, like Chris, who suffer from the anxiety of IV procedures or have issues with vein quality, therefore we are delighted to be able to offer another vein finder to the ward."

During his chemotherapy treatment, Christopher found IV treatments particularly harrowing due to the damage caused to his veins by chemotherapy. 

He discovered the vein finder during a visit to the Christie hospital in Manchester and vowed to raise funds to place these devices into local hospitals so that others wouldn’t have to suffer the stress that he did.

This has become Christopher’s legacy and his family have placed 28 of these devices into wards throughout Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife.

The charity donated two vein finders to the Children’s Outpatients and Ambulatory Care Ward in 2018 and 2015, however, these invaluable devices usage is an average of eight years so it was time to update the ward with an up-to-date model. 

This was made possible by a local company - Discounted Office Supplies in Dalgety Bay, who participated in the Edinburgh Kiltwalk, along with various other fundraising events and local donations over the last year.