Spreading Smiles at Southampton Children’s Hospital

960 720 Viv Levene

We’ve welcomed Southampton Children’s Hospital to our growing list of partner hospitals.

For a couple of years, Southampton patients have been receiving their radiotherapy treatment at UCLH, meaning we started entertaining patients from Southampton whilst they were in London for treatment. We wanted to extend our services to support all the families receiving oncology treatment in Southampton and are now spreading much needed smiles to children and young people on Piam Brown ward.

We hope to extend our services to other paediatric wards within Southampton Children’s Hospital soon.

Patients currently enjoy Spread a Smile virtual visits with our entertainers and joined our Santa’s Grotto over Christmas as well as our Jellly Challenge at the beginning of May. We’re looking forward to adding more services in the future.

Claire Pickett, Play Specialist on Piam Brown ward, said, “Spread a Smile has been a really positive addition to the Piam Brown ward. The children look forward to their sesions and even after they’ve ended the enjoyment continues, as they can’t wait to tell us all what they’ve been up to.

“As well as the individual sessions, the group sessions have been fantastic for the interaction between the children and it’s been lovely to see. They really do Spread a Smile and we feel incredibly lucky to have them at Southampton Children’s Hospital.”