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Susie

Spread a Smile joins SoHPS Conference

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Earlier this month we were delighted to be invited to be part of the SoHPS Society of Health Play Specialists 3rd annual conference.

Ellie Walker (Head of Family Events) and Jennie Walton (Head of Services), along with entertainers, Judge the Poet and Louise were there to share the amazing work Spread a Smile does working with Play teams across NHS hospitals.

The conference is a chance to network and engage with fellow play professionals, celebrate the amazing work of play specialists and hear inspiring stories from health practitioners.

Laura Walter, Spread a Smile Director of Services said: “Play is crucial for physical, social and emotional development and wellbeing and an essential part of childhood. At Spread a Smile, we aim to help bring the benefits of play to children and young people in hospital at a time when it might be more difficult to access and they are feeling most isolated and vulnerable.”

Judge the Poet and Louise showcased the work of Spread a Smile, entertaining delegates attending the conference and over lunch.

Thank you to the Society of Health Play Specialists and all those involved with organising the conference for making us so welcome. We’re looking forward to next year already.

Masthaven Champions – Three Peaks Challenge

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A huge congratulations and thank you to our long-standing corporate partner, Masthaven, who have raised an incredible £15,100 for Spread a Smile by taking on the National Three Peaks Challenge.

A team of 14 colleagues, led by CEO and Spread a Smile Trustee Andrew Bloom, completed one of Britain’s toughest outdoor challenges, climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon within 24 hours. Covering around 26 miles and ascending almost 3,000 metres, the team pushed themselves both physically and mentally to support seriously ill children and young people.

Masthaven has proudly supported Spread a Smile since 2019, and this challenge marks another incredible milestone in our partnership. The funds raised will help us continue delivering magical bedside visits from entertainers, musicians, magicians, artists, fairies and therapy dogs, creating moments of joy, laughter and connection for children and families in hospital.

Andrew Bloom said: “To complete the Three Peaks Challenge within 24 hours is a tough event, but also incredibly rewarding for myself and all 14 people in Team Masthaven. A real highlight was seeing how everyone rallied together when things got tough – there was always someone offering encouragement, a joke or a snack when it was needed most.

“Through every weather condition, the team kept each other going, and reaching the final summit together was a lovely moment. Knowing we were raising money for an incredible charity like Spread a Smile kept us motivated throughout. We’re hugely proud of what Team Masthaven has achieved together.”

A huge thank you to Andrew and everyone at Masthaven for their incredible commitment, determination and continued support. Together, they’re helping us spread smiles to even more seriously ill children and young people.

If your company would like to take on a fundraising challenge such as the National Three Peaks Challenge, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with our Partnerships Manager, Rosie Perkins, rosie@spreadasmile.org.

WillU Group CEO takes on 52-mile Appeal challenge

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WillU Group CEO Jack Lane-Matthews takes on epic 52-mile challenge for Spread a Smile

One incredible supporter. Fifty two miles. Twelve hours. Countless smiles.

Spread a Smile is incredibly proud to have the support of Jack Lane-Matthews, Group CEO and Co-Owner at WillU Group, who is taking on an extraordinary fundraising challenge as part of our upcoming fundraising appeal from 5–9 July.

On 9 July, Jack will be running 52 miles – the equivalent of a double marathon-  in just 12 hours. Starting on the hour, every hour, he’ll head out to run approximately four miles before returning to the start line and doing it all over again.

It’s a huge physical and mental test, but for Jack, the motivation is simple.

“I’ve been lucky enough to see first-hand the incredible work Spread a Smile does and the happiness it brings to seriously ill children and their families. Every visit, every performance and every smile makes a real difference, and that’s what will keep me going when my legs start to hurt.

“This challenge is about pushing myself to help create moments of joy for children who are facing challenges far greater than any 52-mile run. If it inspires even one other person to take on their own fundraising challenge, that would be amazing.”

Jack is no stranger to endurance events. Last year he completed the London Marathon and Ironman Austria, spending months training for the challenges and covering more than 100 miles every week. Now he’s setting himself another ambitious goal in support of Spread a Smile.

We’re so grateful to have Jack as part of the Spread a Smile family and can’t wait to cheer him on every mile of the way.

It’s not too late to become an Appeal Champion.

Whether you’re planning a run, a cycle, a bake sale, a quiz night or something completely different, we’d love you to join us between 5 and 9 July and take on your own challenge to help spread smiles when they’re needed most.

Good luck, Jack – we’ll be with you every step of the 50 miles (in spirit!).

Spread a Smile Appeal - Abound Norway Trek

Champions ‘Abound’ supports Spread a Smile Appeal

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Abound is proudly supporting The Spread a Smile Appeal, with a programme of fundraising activities to help bring joy and laughter to seriously ill children and their families across the country.

The team kicked off their endeavours with a trek to Kjerag, Norway, on 27 June. Taking on one of Norway’s most spectacular hiking challenges, the Abound team covered 12km of steep granite trails and dramatic mountain scenery, testing their determination and teamwork while raising vital funds for the appeal.

Having proudly supported Spread a Smile for more than three years, Abound is aiming to make 2026 their biggest fundraising year yet, with 30 colleagues coming together to support the appeal through a range of activities and events.

Every pound raised will help Spread a Smile reach its goal of delivering 23,000 smiles this year through magical hospital visits from entertainers including magicians, musicians, artists, fairies and therapy dogs, bringing moments of joy, reducing anxiety and creating lasting memories for seriously ill children and their families when they need them most.

It’s still not too late to become an Appeal Champion.

Find out more and sign up today and help us continue to spread smiles.

Support ‘Team Abound’ here.

Spread a Smile Appeal

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Today marks the launch of the Spread a Smile 2026 Appeal — and we need you to help make it our most impactful yet.

Running from 5–9 July, the five-day campaign is all about coming together to help bring much-needed joy, laughter and connection to seriously ill children and young people across the country.

Every year, tens of thousands of children face long hospital stays, missing out on the simple joys of childhood — playdates, school trips, and time with friends. Instead, their days are filled with clinical routines and uncertainty. That’s where Spread a Smile steps in — delivering entertainment, creativity and happiness when it’s needed most.

This year, our goal is ambitious: to deliver 23,000 smiles. And with your help, we know we can do it.

How you can get involved

Joining the appeal is quick and easy — and every action you take can make a real difference:

  • Sign up to become a Spread a Smile Champion
  • Receive your personalised fundraising page link
  • Share it with your network via WhatsApp, email and social media
  • Encourage friends, family and colleagues to donate — every contribution counts
  • Then watch something truly special happen.
Small actions. Big impact.

Whether it’s a single message, a shared post, or a quick donation, your support helps bring moments of joy to children who need them most. Together, we can turn generosity into laughter, connection and unforgettable smiles.

Become a Champion Today

We can’t do this without you — and we need you now.

👉 Become a Champion. Share your page. Inspire donations.
👉 Be part of delivering 23,000 smiles.

Let’s make this July unforgettable.

Register your interest!

John Radcliffe expansion

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Spread a Smile is delighted to be expanding delivery of our services across children’s wards at Oxford Children’s Hospital (John Radcliffe site), part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Spread a Smile has been supporting seriously ill children and young people receiving treatment at the hospital since 2024, making monthly in-person entertainer visits alongside providing a range of virtual services. Thanks to the support from Oxford Hospitals Charity, the number of visits is being doubled. The funding from Oxford Hospitals Charity will help ensure that Spread a Smile reaches every patient that could benefit from their services across, children’s in-patients and out-patients.

Kelly Osborne, whose 12-year-old son Jenson spent three months in hospital following gastro surgery, praised the support, saying: “It’s amazing seeing him so happy. Jenson is a long-term patient, so for him having these sessions is really important – they make his week!

“It’s good to have someone non-medical who isn’t doing a procedure, just having fun with him. After the sessions have taken place he tells everyone about them. He just loves them.

“I’m so appreciative for this extra support from the charities, it really makes such a difference to families like ours. It’s amazing.”

Sarah Vaccari from Oxford Hospitals Charity said: “It was wonderful to see Jenson’s delight at the Disney songs and bubble play, so skillfully provided by Laura and Kerry from the Spread a Smile Team!

“Our charity team is thrilled that thanks to our kind supporters and the talents of Spread a Smile, we have been able to fund these extra sessions to bring more joy into the Oxford Children’s Hospital. Fun and laughter in hospital is so important and has such a positive impact on our young patients and their families. It’s just wonderful to see.”

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive said: “Spread a Smile is committed to supporting as many seriously ill children, young people and their families as possible across the country. Through our entertainer visits, family outings and events and art initiatives, it is our mission to make sure that all of the families we support have a chance to smile, laugh and have fun. We are extremely grateful to our friends from the Oxford Hospitals Charity for helping to take us one step closer to achieving our aims of delivering regular in-person entertainer visits to all 28 specialist children’s hospitals in the UK by 2035.”

Jo Pinney, Health Play Specialist Team Manager at John Radcliffe Hospital added: “We are so grateful to Spread a Smile for the energy, kindness and creativity they bring to our wards. These sessions offer children a chance to simply be children again, and that impact is felt by their families and staff alike.”

Sign up to our monthly e-newsletter to receive Spread a Smile updates and smiles direct to your inbox. 

Together – spreading smiles

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Today we are shining a spotlight on our partnership with Together, who have supported Spread a Smile and the delivery of our entertainment services in the North West since November 2025.

Spread a Smile relies completely on the generosity of individual donors and companies, with Together’s support directly helping to fund vital in-person entertainer visits for seriously ill children and young people across two key North West hospitals: The Christie Hospital in Manchester (Proton Beam Therapy Centre) and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

We were delighted to welcome Together’s Community Impact Manager, Sonny Clements, on a visit to The Christie Hospital in March, providing an opportunity to see first-hand the difference these visits and their support make to seriously ill children and their families.

Sonny said, “Together is proudly supporting Spread a Smile – supporting their entertainment visits at both The Christie and Alder Hey. We are delighted to be supporting a fantastic initiative that allows to put smiles on children who need it most – it was an absolute pleasure visiting The Christie to witness this at first hand and I would like to say a huge thank you to the spread a smile team and the entertainers for making this visit happen.”

Rosie Perkins, Spread a Smile Partnerships Manager added, “We are extremely grateful to Sonny and everyone at Together for helping us to spread smiles to seriously ill children in hospitals in the North West. It is amazing to be able to directly link an organisation with the brilliant work we are doing supporting families local to them, helping Together to make a considerable and positive difference within their community.

“We couldn’t do what we do without the enthusiasm and generosity of companies such as Together and it’s a pleasure to work with them”

If you would like to find out more about how your company can get involved with the work of Spread a Smile, through our partnership programme or events, please email Rosie at rosie@spreadasmileorg

Mortlake Crematorium supports Spread a Smile

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Across the UK, crematoria are finding meaningful ways to support local and national charities such as Spread a Smile, raising vital funds to make a difference.

Recently, Mortlake Crematorium, Kew generously supported Spread a Smile as part of a national metal recycling initiative in partnership with Orthometals. The partnership sees metals (such as metal limbs), recovered after cremations with families’ consent, recycled and the proceeds donated to charity.

Mortlake Crematorium donated an incredible £4,250 through the initiative to help spread smiles to seriously ill children and young people, including to those receiving treatment at local hospitals such as West Middlesex Hospital, Kingston Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Natasha Bradshaw, Manager at Mortlake Crematorium said, “We wanted to support the great work that Spread a Smile does. It is so hard for a family watch a child go through treatment, sometimes being in hospital for long periods, or having to return to hospital on numerous occasions for treatment.  Being able to see their child smile and have fun in those times may give all involved a little relief.  The charity supports the families and siblings too which is just great. Kindness and joy are infectious and that is why Spread a Smile was such a great charity to nominate, as they bring joy on often difficult days for ill children and their families.”

Susie Baxter Head of Marketing for Spread a Smile, (pictured right) visited the Crematorium to receive the cheque, sharing more about how the charity’s entertainers spend time with seriously ill children in hospital, at our family events and through our online sessions, to bring moments of joy, distraction and happiness when they are needed most.

Susie said, “For children living with serious illness, time for fun and play can often feel out of reach. Thanks to the generosity of organisations such as Mortlake Crematorium and the bereaved families who kindly donate their loved ones’ metals, Spread a Smile will bring hope and joy to children and families going through some of the most difficult times of their lives. We are extremely grateful for their kindness and support helping us spread smiles to children local to them and across the country.”

If you know of a Crematorium local to you that might be interested in supporting our work, please do help spread the word or reach out to our fundraising team at fundraising@spreadasmile.org. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you.

 

Real Estate Dinner – Building for the future

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We were delighted to host our eighth Real Estate Dinner on 19 March at Uncommon Holborn, bringing together leaders from across the property sector for an evening of connection, conversation and shared purpose.

The event provided a valuable opportunity to showcase the work of Spread a Smile, our ambitions for growth, and how we build meaningful, mutually beneficial partnerships that enable us to continue supporting seriously ill children and their families across the UK.

Chief Executive, Lucy Jackson, said: “As we celebrate our seventh Real Estate Dinner, we are incredibly proud of the support from our Real Estate Committee and grateful to everyone who joined us to learn more about our work.”

Chaired by Shaun Simons (Founder, Compton), our Real Estate Committee plays a vital role in helping us develop impactful relationships and grow our network of supporters. We extend our sincere thanks to Shaun and fellow committee members – Chris Davies (Uncommon), James Lass (Swiss Life Asset Managers UK), Michael Mirelman (GRE Finance), Nicky Barker (KKR), Paul Nearchou (DFI), Lee Jackson (Eversheds Sutherland) and Ekaterina Avdonina (Mirastar) – for their ongoing dedication.

If you’re interested in attending future industry events or exploring partnership opportunities with Spread a Smile, we would love to hear from you. Please sign up to our monthly e-news or contact our Head of Partnerships, Lucy Chesney, at LucyChesney@spreadasmile.org.

Christmas 2025 Spread a Smile round-up

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For families supported by Spread a Smile, Christmas can be a particularly challenging time, with hospital stays, treatments, and uncertainty often overshadowing the festive season.

This Christmas, Spread a Smile supported more seriously ill children, young people and their families than ever before through our festive initiatives, thanks to the wonderful support of our supporters, volunteers, donors, corporate partners and many other organisations who have helped make everything possible. Here’s a roundup of how we’ll be spreading smiles when they are needed most this Christmas. You can also watch the film here.

More Smile Hampers than ever before
We sent out 2,000 personalised Smile Hampers to seriously ill children and their siblings in time for Christmas – an increase from 1,874 in 2024. Each one was full of gifts hand-picked with each child in mind, with our friends from DPD generously supporting us by picking up the hampers every week and delivering them directly to homes in time for Christmas.

It was a huge team effort, with 480 volunteers joining us over 6 weeks from Monday 3 November to Friday 12 December, giving up over 120 hours of support to hand-pick thousands of gifts for the Smile Hampers. Our supporters and corporate partners helped by buying and donating thousands of gifts for the hampers, making everything possible.

Supporting our hospital and hospice partners
During December we carried out 87 in-person visits (more than ever before) to our NHS hospital and hospice partners, helping to spread some festive cheer. This included:

  • 15 visits by Father Christmas and the Spread a Smile elves to 11 of our NHS Hospital partners, giving the opportunity for children spending time in hospital to meet Santa and the Spread a Smile elves;
  • Visits to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) on Christmas Day generously funded by our friends at Whitepaper;
  • Support for Christmas Parties at 8 NHS hospital and one hospice partners (Helen & Douglas House).

A special virtual grotto for those unable to meet Santa in person
Our virtual Christmas Grotto gave children who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to meet Father Christmas in-person the chance to have a personalised online meet up with the big man himself. Running from 22, 23, 24 December (for families), we welcomed over 125 children to visit our grotto, and also organised hospital sessions for children at Leicester Children’s Hospital, Wrexham Hospital and The Grange Hospital.

Beautiful festive windows in NHS hospitals
Spread a Smile’s Head of Art, Marina Constantinou and our team of artists visited some of our NHS hospital partners, including Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, to paint 100 beautiful Winter and Christmas murals across the hospital wards, walls and windows, helping to brighten up the clinical spaces and spread some festive cheer for the families and staff there. Look out for murals at Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice, Maidenhead, University College Hospital (UCLH), Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), The Whittington Hospital, Kings College Hospital, St Marys Hospital and The Royal Brompton Hospital.

Christmas Gift Treat Drops
Alongside our Smile Hampers, we delivered boxes of gifts to all 39 of our NHS hospital partners. Each box was packed full of gifts to be handed out to seriously ill children and young people and help spread some festive cheer.

In total 10,000 gifts have been sent out to seriously ill children and their siblings, in our Smile Hampers and also in Christmas treat boxes. These have been donated by generous individuals and companies.

Virtual entertainer sessions
Spread a Smile is also running virtual entertainer visits for seriously ill children and their siblings, from magic to music art and more. They mean that the children we support can enjoy our services from wherever they live and are particularly important for those who are isolating at home and unable to spend time with others outside of the family home. This year we organised festive virtual group sessions for the families we support, bringing Christmas cheer directly into their homes and including ‘Stories with Santa’ on Christmas Eve.

Festive Family Events and Outings
winter funland spread a smileSpread a Smile runs a calendar of special events and outings for the families we support to enjoy, from West End theatre and cinema trips to chocolate and pottery workshops, brunches, afternoon teas and so much more. They give the families we support the chance to spend time making memories together without the worry of illness and treatment plans. In December we welcomed over 100 of the families we support to two special Christmas themed events – an afternoon tea at vegan restaurant, Mildreds, and also a trip to Winter Funland at Olympia London, for whom Spread a Smile is a charity partner.

In total, we’ll be spreading over 5,000 smiles this festive season, bringing joy, happiness and special festive moments to families with seriously ill children across the country.