A LOWESTOFT schoolgirl who has bounced back to health after breaking her arm while playing on a trampoline has designed a Christmas card that she hopes will help new-born babies at Norfolk's flagship hospital.

Twelve-year-old Kira McDonald has designed a card which is being sold at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to raise funds for its Cots for Tots appeal, helping its neonatal intensive care unit improve its facilities.

Kira, who attends Harris Middle School in Lowestoft, entered a competition to design the card while she was in the hospital, having broken her arm while playing on a trampoline last June.

She had returned to the N&N to have her pins removed when she came up with her festive design.

Her achievement is even more impressive because she had to learn how to write with her 'other hand' after injuring her writing hand.

Kira's mum Nicola McDonald, 36, of Oulton Road, Lowestoft, said: 'She was really shocked when she discovered her design had be chosen; she couldn't believe it. It's really nice to think that the card she designed is going to help other children.

'She broke her left arm and she is left-handed so she's had to learn to write with her right hand which has been a bit of a struggle for her. She's got more movement in her left hand now but she had to use both hands when she designed the card.'

The Christmas card designed by Kira features two snowmen and snow falling from the sky. On the back, there is a Father Christmas drawing by six-year-old Joe Rudling.

The hospital is appealing for the public's help in raising �500,000 for four new cots in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

More than 850 babies each year are cared for at the unit, but demand is rising and it needs to expand.

Currently, it can offer look after 28 babies at any one time, but as one of only three specialist neonatal units in the east and serving families from across Norfolk and Suffolk and beyond, it can regularly be full.

Half a million pounds would pay for four more intensive care or high-dependency incubators, and the associated building work and kitting-out needed. And with the public's help, NICU hopes to get the four new cots up and running by autumn 2011.

The Christmas Cards have been printed by Norwich Colour Print and the envelopes donated by Paperclip of Great Yarmouth.

They cost �4 for a pack of 10. To buy a set, send your name and address and the number of packs you require along with a cheque made payable to NNUH NHS Foundation Trust (with NICU Cot Expansion Fund F300 written on the reverse) to Communications Office, West Outpatients, Level 4, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UY

To make a donation to the appeal, send a cheque to the above address or go to www.justgiving.com/norwichnicu