Friends behind heart-warming snow message at hospital reveal why they did it

Tom Gyte, and Jonny Elliott had been clearing paths at Royal Hallamshire hospital when they came up with the idea.

Two friends behind a heart-warming gesture in Sheffield have been left gobsmacked after it went viral.

Tom Gyte, 33, and Jonny Elliott, 32, had recently been clearing paths to the carpark at Royal Hallamshire hospital after heavy snow.

Unruly weather had reduced the number of well-wishers and visitors to patients at the hospital.

After clearing the lower floors, Tom and Jonny ventured to the top level of the car park where they came up with the idea to leave a message.

Tom told Metro.co.uk: ‘First we thought we best clear it but it was about a foot and a half deep and would have taken us all day. 

‘We just looked at each other and said, “let’s write something”.

‘At first it was just going to be hello so we started with the “L” but then we realised a lot of people might see it in the wards, and we decided it made sense to write “get well soon”.’

Jonny walked the letters out and Tom followed along with a snow shovel to ensure the message was clear to see.

Twenty minutes later, the friends had completed the words, plus a smiley face for good measure.

Jonny and Tom have been friends since they were teenagers and started the RTR group together with a few other friends. 

Others from the business were working that day but in different locations.

To see their kind gesture go viral was a special moment for the close group of friends.

Tom added: ‘We had joked about it going viral but didn’t actually expect it to go quite like it has. 

‘Seeing people’s responses was quite rewarding and we didn’t quite believe how quick it was shared. So many of our family and friends just kept sending it to us asking if we had seen it.’

Their message was left on top of a car park opposite the hospital on Thursday.

‘Proper good job, thanks to those who did it,’ tweeted Paul Harris, 44, from Kidsgrove in Staffordshire.

Mr Harris, who has pulmonary arterial hypertension and raises money for Pulmonary Hypertension Association UK, told the PA news agency he attends the Sheffield hospital roughly every six months for check ups.

He was on the 13th floor when he spotted the message in the snow.

‘It was decent!” he had said.

‘I don’t know how many rooms have that view but it’s the main profile of the hospital so there must have been probably 100 windows at least it could be seen from, easily.

‘The amount of people who would have seen it is immense.’

Sheffield was one of a number of locations in the UK which has been affected by the cold weather and snow.

The Met Office had issued three amber warnings for northern England, the Midlands, North Wales and Northern Ireland, where ‘significant disruption’ to transport and power supplies was expected.

Twitter user Joe Dawson was another who spotted the message from opposite the hospital, tweeting ‘To the lads that have done this on the car park at the Hallamshire, you’ve really cheered everyone on @NCCU-K1 up! Legends!’

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