Sarah Cann

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.

This month, we warmly welcomed all children under the care of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and their families to the Spread a Smile family. This latest partnership is the tenth major NHS London hospital that we are working with.  It marks the next milestone in our mission to bring comfort, laughter and support to seriously ill and hospitalised children and their families throughout the country.

Children at Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex Hospitals will be able to join our weekly virtual group hospital visits from entertainers, take part in our themed activity days, and receive our surprise treat drops (keep an eye out for Cupid on Valentine’s Day!). Families of long-term patients will also be able to book one-on-one virtual sessions with our wonderful entertainers and will receive our delivery of post-procedure treat boxes. We will be delivering these visits in collaboration with the Trust’s official charity CW+, as part of their participatory Arts in Health programme to improve the hospital experience for patients and their families.

Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust patients will also not to have to wait too long to see one of our fairies in person as we will be starting our in-person entertainer visits in March.

To find out more about how we support our families, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter here.

More than 200 of Rosie Fortescue’s rainbow bracelets have been sold since the launch of our partnership with the luxury jewellery brand last summer, raising over £4,000 for Spread a Smile.

Rosie Fortescue: “I chose to donate 100% of the profits of this bracelet to Spread a Smile because they are the most fantastic charity that truly make the lives of children and their families better at the most difficult times.“

This generous donation will make such a difference to the work we do to bring smiles to children who are critically ill in hospital.

Thank you to Rosie, her team and everyone who bought our lovely rainbow bracelets!