First-team stars Adam Forshaw and Barry Douglas paid a special Valentine’s Day visit to Leeds General Infirmary on Thursday afternoon to spread some Leeds United love to some of the brave young patients.

The Whites duo were on hand to give out chocolates and spend time with children receiving treatment on the heart ward along with their families as part of the season-long partnership with Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

Valentine’s Day is a special holiday for the local charity as all of the work they do is to support babies and young children with congenital heart disease. They help to purchase life-saving equipment for open-heart surgery procedures, support families through some of the hardest times in their life by providing places for them to stay and giving them someone to talk to along with ensuring the experience for the child is as easy as it possibly can be.

As part of the campaign with Leeds United money will be raised to help purchase Super-Life Support Machines and a new Dialysis Machine for the Children’s Intensive Care Unit, as well as help to refurbish the family unit based at the hospital and give once-in-a-lifetime experiences to the youngsters they work with.

Leeds United midfielder Forshaw is an Ambassador for the charity campaign on behalf of the first-team squad and spoke to LUTV during the visit, he said: “Me and Barry have really enjoyed meeting the families here today, it’s heartbreaking to see what they are going through but at the same time we love coming and hopefully putting smiles on people’s faces, taking their mind off what they’re all having to go through.

“We’ve both got young kids ourselves and we just couldn’t imagine being in their place, they’ve been telling us everything they’ve been going through and how much Children’s Heart Surgery Fund supports them, it’s great for us to see first-hand – especially on Valentine’s Day, which I know is a special time for them.”

If you are able to donate to the campaign to help the club and charity purchase life-saving equipment for babies and young children who require heart operations and procedures please visit JustGiving.com/all-leeds-all-heart.