This Valentine’s Day, the Spread a Smile team were out and about delivering over 1,000 heart-shaped surprises to critically ill children in NHS hospitals. We delivered balloons to 14 hospitals in London and Manchester to spread the love.
With hospitals still restricting the number of visitors allowed due to COVID-19, it’s as important as ever for us to show children and young people that their loved ones are thinking of them on this day (as are we at Spread a Smile). Being able to connect children with their loved ones is even more important on special days, and we were delighted to be able to bring some joy and warmth to the wards.
Lucy Jackson, CEO of Spread a Smile said, “We are all about bringing joy and laughter to seriously ill children in hospital. Valentine’s Day gives us an opportunity to show patients that we care! We are delivering 1230 balloons to children and teenagers at 14 of our hospital partners to bring them a much-needed smile. It’s incredible to see the joy that a simple balloon can bring and it’s very special to see all the children in hospital happily clutching their heart-shaped balloon. It’s a really amazing distraction.”
The hospitals we visited were: Royal London, St Mary’s, Kings, Whittington, North Middlesex, Northwick Park, Royal Brompton, St George’s, Chelsea and Westminster, Evelina, Royal Marsden, Royal National Orthopaedic, Noah’s Ark Hospice, and the Proton Beam Therapy Centre at the Christie.
