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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Ariana Grande donates Christmas gifts to children in Manchester hospitals five years after concert bombing

Ariana Grande has continued to honour the memory of the victims that were killed in a bombing at her Manchester gig five years ago by sending Christmas presents to children at local hospitals.

The touching act was revealed by the health board’s social media team, who shared a picture of a huge pile of brightly wrapped gifts along with a note that read “Thank you Ariana”.

They captioned their post: “Thank you Ariana! We were so excited to receive Christmas gifts for young patients across our hospitals from Ariana Grande.

“The presents were distributed to babies, children and teenagers at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Wythenshawe Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital.”

Thank U, Next singer Grande, 29, shares an emotional connection with the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital after the 2017 terrorist attack at her nearby Arena concert.

22 people were killed and 139 injured after Salman Abedi, 22, blew himself up as people were leaving the packed venue on May 22, 2017.

Following the tragedy, Grande put her tour on hold, but decided to return to the city two weeks later to headline a special benefit concert.

The One Love gig held at the Old Trafford cricket ground saw a number of other big names take to the stage including Coldplay, Katy Perry, Liam Gallagher, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Robbie Williams.

Ariana Grande made a brave return to Manchester two weeks after the attack to put on the One Love benefit concert (Getty)

It raised more than £17million with a number of the audience that attended Grande’s last show in attendance.

Fans who could not be there in person decided to show their support by pushing her 2017 single One More Time to the top of the charts.

In recognition of her actions following the attack, Grande made an honorary citizen of Manchester.

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