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Susie

Spread a Smile Co-Founders receive their MBEs

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Earlier this week, Spread a Smile’s amazing Co-Founders, Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker visited Buckingham Palace to receive their MBE awards. They were presented with them by Anne, Princess Royal, having been awarded them for services to seriously and terminally ill children and their families in The King’s 2024 New Year Honours.

Josephine and Vanessa started Spread a Smile 11 years ago, after seeing the positive impact a magician’s visit had on Josephine’s 9-year-old nephew, Aaron, whilst he was having cancer treatment in Great Ormond Street Hospital. Since then, the charity has grown significantly and is now the country’s leading provider of hospital entertainment for children and teenagers. Both remain actively involved, working closely with the team of Spread a Smile entertainers, making regular visits to children in hospital and joining family events.

Josephine and Vanessa said, “We are so proud to have accepted our MBEs on behalf of

the team at Spread a Smile who make our work possible and on behalf of all the incredible and inspirational children and families we have met over the years.

“Visiting Buckingham Palace was an experience we will never forget, made even more special doing it alongside our own families, who have been a constant source of support and motivation over the years. 

“It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to tell Princess Anne about our work, why we started the charity and why what we do is so important.

“We believe deeply in the work of Spread a Smile and we promise to continue to do everything we can to spread smiles, laughter and positive memories when they are needed the most.”

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive at Spread a Smile said, “I feel truly honoured to work alongside two such inspirational women. Nothing is too much trouble for Josephine and Vanessa. They exude kindness and compassion and are completely committed to spreading smiles and bringing love and comfort into the lives of seriously ill children and their families. I am so incredibly proud of them and can’t think of two people more deserving of this honour.”

Read on to find out more about Spread a Smile, how we are making a difference to the families we support and how you can get involved.

FLOWERBX afternoon tea at Corinthia London

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Spread a Smile is delighted to be the beneficiary charity of an exciting collaboration between FLOWERBX and our partners, Corinthia London.

Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, founder and CEO of FLOWERBX, and Corinthia London’s executive pastry chef Yago Doamo have paired their creative skills and devised a selection of strikingly beautiful desserts which will mark the Chelsea Flower Show and celebrate the approach of Summer.

The distinctive and delicious desserts have been inspired by Whitney and the stunning flower range at the FLOWERBX in-house shop at Corinthia London. They combine individual, visually impactful floral motifs with seasonal spring-into-summer ingredients, such as strawberries and blueberries, lavender and lemon, chocolate and salted caramel.

Alongside a selection of finger sandwiches, tea blends and other treats, the desserts will form part of the afternoon tea service at Corinthia London in the Crystal Moon Lounge from 2 May-29 May 2024, with £10 from every tea being donated to Spread a Smile.

To further mark the season’s floral theme at Corinthia London, FLOWERBX have created dazzling large paper flowers to adorn the Crystal Moon Lounge and the Foyer of the hotel. This impressive floral installation will feature delicate colourful paper flowers, and there will also be a large floral tree in the Foyer adorned with the striking individual flowers which can be purchased to take away, with the proceeds donated to the Spread a Smile.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive of Spread a Smile, said “We are so grateful to our friends at Corinthia London and FLOWERBX for their incredible support. We are honoured to be part of this amazing collaboration. We would like to say thank you to everyone involved for creating and supporting this wonderful initiative which will help us spread even more smiles to seriously ill children and their families.”

To find out more about afternoon tea at the Corinthia London please visit their website here.

Families join us for special LEGO workshops

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Earlier this month we hosted two very special LEGO® workshops for some of the children, young people and families we support.

We were joined by our friends from the LEGO Group for specially crafted sessions, with lots of different activities and building projects using LEGO and DUPLO bricks for our guests to enjoy.

As always, Spread a Smile entertainers joined in the fun with magic, face painting and smiles from Fairy Joanna.

Nearly 30 children and their parents/carers came along, and we are so grateful to the LEGO Group for their continued support and creativity in helping to spread smiles to the families we support.

“Thank you to all the team including the extended LEGO team and performers for the wonderful morning at the LEGO event. You all went to so much effort and Eva had a wonderful time with Joanne the Fairy and Nick the magician.” Claire. Eva’s Mum

Spread a Smile’s outings, events and activities aim to support young patients, their parents, carers and siblings and bring moments of respite, joyful experiences and enduring memories at the most challenging of times. They include workshops such as this, alongside theatre trips, tea parties, annual events and much more.

If you or your company would like to chat about how you can get involved with Spread a Smile and support our vital work, please email us at fundraising@spreadasmile.org

London Marathon success

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Nine amazing runners joined Team Smile for the TCS London Marathon this year.

Andy, Carly, Charlotte, Dawn, Jake, Jemma, Marcus and Martin all took on this incredible challenge in aid of Spread a Smile, together raising over £30,000 to help us spread smiles to seriously ill children and their families.

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for your support and for the opportunity to run. It was such an incredible experience, and the atmosphere was amazing.” Marcus Godfrey, Team Smile runner

The London Marathon is one of the world’s most popular marathons, covering 26.2 miles around the streets of our beautiful capital city, taking in London’s best landmarks including Buckingham Palace, The Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf.

Spread a Smile was delighted to be there on the day, in partnership with Children with Cancer UK, to cheer our teams on along the route. With 50,000 runners in total, the experience was one not to be forgotten and everyone at Spread a Smile felt proud to support such a dedicated team of runners.

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive said, “By taking on the London Marathon, Team Smile truly went the extra mile in support of Spread a Smile. We loved cheering them on and were delighted to welcome them to a special post-race party with our friends from Children with Cancer UK, where we celebrated their achievements with entertainment, magic and games for the families. We can’t wait for next year and a huge thank you to all of our amazing runners for their hard work and commitment and for raising so much to spread smiles when they are needed most.”

To find out more about our upcoming events and joining Team Smile, please click here or email Rimi at rimi@spreadasmile.org

Celebrating Spread a Smile’s 11th birthday at GOSH

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On Thursday 11 April Spread a Smile celebrated our 11th birthday with a very special event in the Lagoon Canteen at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

We were joined by nearly 100 people including inpatients, outpatients, family members and hospital staff for fun art activities run by our artist Abi, entertainment from Mr Magic, poetry from Judge the poet and a little bit of fairy magic from Fairy Jude. Our Co-Founder Josephine and her therapy dog Buddy also joined us to help spread even more smiles. There was also a quieter space for one-to-one chats and colouring.

It was a wonderful morning and a chance for us to engage with so many people in the hospital where our work began 11 years ago.  To add to the celebrations, our friends from Lola’s Cupcakes also provided some delicious cupcakes for us to share with our guests. We were also joined by two lovely volunteers from our partners, Corinthia London.

Laura Walter, Spread a Smile’s Director of Services said, “It felt incredibly special to be at Great Ormond Street Hospital to celebrate our birthday with patients, families and staff alike. We feel honoured to continue our wonderful partnership with GOSH and to have the opportunity to be there for children under their care and support the amazing hospital teams.”

Spread a Smile’s partnership with GOSH dates back to when Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker founded Spread a Smile 11 years ago.

In 2013, Josephine’s young nephew, Aaron, was receiving treatment at GOSH. After noticing that Aaron was becoming increasingly withdrawn, she arranged for a magician to visit. It had the most remarkable effect: Aaron’s spirits were lifted and his treatment became more bearable.

As a result, Aaron asked if magicians could also visit friends that he’d met on the ward and Josephine promised Aaron she would find a way to make it happen. Josephine teamed up with friend and former colleague Vanessa Crocker and working closely with GOSH, they founded Spread a Smile.

Since then, the Spread a Smile has continued to work closely with the team at GOSH to spread smiles to their patients, providing regular in person entertainer visits, online sessions, treat drops and much more.

Today we are proud to visit the hospital twice a week and every other week on a Monday, providing support across all inpatient wards including the three paediatric intensive care units at the hospital: Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU), Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU) and Cardiac Intensive Care (CICU) as well as other wards such as oncology day care, outpatients and pre-op.

To find out more about our work supporting hospitals such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, please click here. Please donate to help us ensure we can continue to be there when it’s needed most. Thank you.

Amazing line-up for Spread a Smile Comedy Night

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For 2024 the extremely popular Spread a Smile Comedy Night, hosted and curated by the charity’s Ambassador Suzi Ruffell, will return on Tuesday 7 May to The Comedy Store, London.

Generously sponsored by Canary Wharf Contractors and Texel Foundation, the event features a brilliant line up of famously funny faces including Josh Widdicombe, Iain Stirling, Sara Barron, Sindhu Vee and Amy Annette.

“As a Spread a Smile Ambassador, I’m proud to do what I can to support the charity’s brilliant work spreading smiles to seriously ill children and young people and I’ve seen first hand the difference they make. I’m excited to be hosting another exciting Comedy Night at The Comedy Store to help raise vital funds to support Spread a Smile’s work. I’ll once again be joined by some legends of comedy to spread some smiles and raise as much as possible on the night for a very worthwhile cause. We hope you’ll join us!” Suzi Ruffell

Last year’s Comedy Night was a huge success with 400 guests joining us for an incredible night of stand-up comedy. Tickets are on sale for £28 each from The Comedy Store and are selling out fast.

Get your tickets now!

“We’re so proud to continue to sponsor the Spread a Smile’s Comedy Night each year. It’s set to be another great evening and we’re pleased to be able to support it and the brilliant work the charity does spreading smiles to seriously ill children.” Alec Vallintine, Managing Director – Construction at Canary Wharf Group.

As always a huge thank you to Suzi for generously giving up her time and curating such a wonderful initiative and to all of her fellow comedians. All proceeds will support Spread a Smile’s work spreading joy and laughter to seriously ill children in hospitals across the UK.

Save the date! Our second Comedy Night will take place on Monday 4 November also at The Comedy Store.

Team Smile takes on the London Marathon

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This weekend, nine incredible supporters will take on the iconic TCS London Marathon in aid of Spread a Smile.

The London Marathon is one of the world’s most popular marathons, covering 26.2 miles around the streets of our beautiful capital city, taking in London’s best landmarks including Buckingham Palace, The Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf.

We spoke to Team Smile marathon runner, Charlotte Weatherall – Director of Sales & Marketing at Corinthia London – about the race ahead, her training and motivations for taking on this amazing challenge and supporting Spread a Smile.

Charlotte: “I ran my first marathon in 2009 in New York with the only goal of getting over the finish line and with no intention of ever doing another one. Since then, I have run 10 marathons in total, including the Brighton Marathon earlier this month. The London Marathon will be my 11th which seems quite fitting seeing as it’s also Spread a Smile’s 11th birthday this month. 

“There is something special about running a marathon – the commitment to training, feeling fitter and heathier and then the magic of the day itself. It hurts and it’s as much a mental challenge as a physical one. But the sense of achievement when you finish is so special it encourages you back to try again.

“I started training for the London Marathon at the beginning of the year and have managed to stick to my plan on the whole. The longer runs of 16, 18 and 20 miles are hard – they take a long time and they hurt. With a young family to juggle alongside work and training there is no rest. The hardest part has been managing the long runs and then still showing up and being a parent, when all I want to do is lie on the sofa! Having my family behind me has kept me going and time is precious, so better use it for something meaningful. The sofa can wait for another day.

“I was introduced to Spread a Smile during the pandemic when the hotel I worked for at the time wanted to gift boxes of afternoon tea and vouchers to NHS hospitals as a thank you for their amazing work during Covid. A mutual friend introduced me to the charity and they helped us set up the initiative and we gifted boxes to NHS key workers. I was instantly impressed and inspired by the charity’s passion and energy and everyone I met and spoke to was so wonderful.

“Since I joined Corinthia London two years ago, I have been able to nominate Spread a Smile as the hotel’s partner charity. Now in the second year of partnership, I feel very proud to see colleagues getting behind the charity and supporting events and initiatives as well as fundraising.

“I organised a team of colleagues from Corinthia London to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon last October and we raised over £13,000, which was an incredibly proud moment. When the team at Spread a Smile mentioned they might be able to get a spot for me in the London Marathon, I jumped at the chance. There is no other marathon like it in the world!

“As a mother of two, there is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful for their health. Love for a child is like nothing I have experienced, and I find it an unbearable thought to imagine that being taken away. I have always empathised with what the children and families supported by Spread a Smile must go through whilst having nothing but respect and admiration for their positivity in the face of adversity.

“I believe Spread a Smile help at the most challenging moments for a family and if I can be a small part in helping that continue, then it is an absolute privilege to do so.

“To anyone thinking of taking on a challenge like the London Marathon for Spread a Smile, I say “do it!” You will never regret it once you cross the finish line and the sense of achievement and pride in yourself for making the commitment, training, raising money and then doing what you agreed to do on the day, is a feeling like no other.”

A huge thank you and GOOD LUCK from everyone at Spread a Smile to Charlotte and all of our amazing marathon runners for their commitment, efforts and support. You’ve got this!

Derwent Art event with Curtis Holder

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Our thanks go to Derwent Art for inviting some young people we support and their families to the Derwent Art Prize exhibition and a special workshop at the Oxo Tower last weekend.

The Derwent Art Prize rewards excellence and showcases the very best artworks made in pencil by artists from around the world. Our VIP guests were welcomed to the exhibition for an engaging workshop led by Derwent Artist Ambassador Curts Holder who showed our budding artists (young people, siblings and parents alike), how to use the grid frame method to replicate an outline as seen through a grid.

It was a lovely opportunity to learn a new skill and find distraction and enjoyment through art in a beautiful and inspiring setting. As one Mum said, “I just wanted to say a very big thank you. Freya loved today’s art session especially as she got to meet Curtis Holder, who is an artist they have been studying at school.” Our guests were generously gifted with a Derwent goody bag to take home after the event, containing art supplies to help everyone continue finding their creativity at home.

We are so grateful to our friends at Derwent for their support and making everyone feel so welcome.

To find out more about our family events and register for our services, please click here.

A special Easter tea party at Corinthia London

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Last week we celebrated Easter in style with a gorgeous Easter themed tea party, generously hosted by our friends at Corintha London.

16 families joined us for a wonderful few hours of Easter fun and treats, including glitter mocktails, a delicious afternoon tea and Easter biscuits which were delivered especially by the talented chefs at Corinthia London for everyone to decorate themselves.

Our family events provide a safe and happy space for families to relax and enjoy themselves together and this one was no exception with entertainment, magic and singing from Fairy Melissa, Rosie and her guitar and Paul the magician, face painting, balloon modelling and even a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny. There were also arts and crafts galore including crown making, easter themed decorations and bunny masks to create.

As one Mum said, “You really know how to put a smile on our faces and such happy moments are incredibly precious.” Nathalie, Mum to Emma.

“We are so proud to bring fun, joy and happiness through our family events and outings to families whose lives have been turned upside down by serious illness. To see the smiles in the room, the laughter and relaxation makes everything worthwhile. A huge thank you to the team at Corinthia London who really went the extra mile to help make everything so special and everyone feel so welcome.” Ellen Walker, Spread a Smile Head of Family Events

“It was our greatest pleasure to host “Spread a Smile” families including young VIP guests for a special afternoon tea at Corinthia London. Our chefs enjoyed making a procession in their tall hats to deliver biscuits ready for decorating. Our cocktail bartenders added special touches of glitter to the bespoke mocktails. Our Restaurant team enjoyed the many smiles as they placed sandwiches, cakes and scones especially designed for young palate’s and our Restaurant was filled with the joy of entertainers singing, making magic, crafting and face painting. Touching moments and making memories, a super time was had by all.” Clare James, Director of Human Resources, Corinthia London

To find out more about our family events and register for our services, please click here.

Meet our new team members

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It’s our aim to spread smiles to as many seriously ill children and their families as possible and we’re lucky to have an incredible team enabling us to do just that.

Two of the newest members to the Spread a Smile family are Gary Broadway who recently joined our Services team as Family Events Coordinator and Tasha Mann who is our new Community Fundraising Manager.

Here’s a little bit from Gary and Tasha to help you get to know them.

Gary: “I previously worked in the Play Team at Kingston Hospital, providing activities, entertainment, play opportunities and themed events for inpatients during their treatment. Whilst working there, we partnered with Spread a Smile and I instantly fell in love with what they were doing and their mission to provide entertainment for all seriously ill children.

“When the opportunity to join Spread a Smile as Family Events Coordinator came up, I jumped at the chance as I felt my experience of working in hospitals and trying to create magical moments for them aligned with Spread a Smile’s goals. I’ve already been to my first event and I’m very excited to meet all our amazing families, help put on more memorable events and help make more children and young people smile! It really is a special place to work.”

“I love to spend time with my family and friends, and I also love to travel, eat and explore nice places. Seeing other people happy is what makes me smile most!”

Tasha: “I have a background in community and events fundraising and am delighted to be part of the Spread a Smile team. I’ve recently come back from a 5-month trip travelling around South East Asia and Australia (which was incredible) and I’m ready to be back in the charity world and am really enjoying working closely with our wonderful supporters and fundraisers.

“Everyone at Spread a Smile has welcomed me with open arms. Just like the incredible work the charity does to help bring joy and laughter to children, the team reflect that with their compassion, kindness, and warmth. I couldn’t be more excited to join such an important and dynamic organisation.”

“Smiling can have such a hugely positive effect on everyone. For me, running, cooking and spending time with my friends always brings out a smile.”

A huge welcome to both Tasha and Gary and you can meet more of our amazing team here.