Viv Levene

Our friends at Readly, the digital magazine and newspaper subscription service, have launched a special promotion exclusively for Spread Smile supporters. 

Firstly, enjoy a two-month free trial of unlimited magazines and newspapers and, if you then go on to sign up for their monthly subscription, Readly will donate £10 to Spread a Smile.  Your account can be shared with up to five family members – each of whom will have access to more than 5,000 popular titles (current and back copies), including Hello, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Four Two Two, and multiple children’s comics and magazines. 

It’s an exciting and environmental way for you and your family to have a world of discovery at your fingertips while spreading more smiles.  Start reading on Readly today and get all the latest car, travel, health & fitness, food, fashion and lifestyle inspiration you’ll ever need.

Click here to start sign up.

We’ve been entertaining Sophie since we met her last Christmas at UCLH, where she was undergoing radiotherapy treatment.

Sophie is now back home on the South Coast and we’ve been continuing to entertain her and her family with regular virtual art sessions. Sophie absolutely loves art and has recently started painting ceramics to sell at a local gallery with all proceeds going to charity including £500 to Spread a Smile.

Her mum, Charlotte, said, “When Sophie started painting her ceramics and raising money she wanted to make sure children weren’t bored in hospital. We’re so pleased we could help Spread a Smile support many more children.”   For more information on our virtual visits please do click on Sophie’s photo.

Thank you to Sophie and her family for this wonderful donation which will help us spread more smiles.

On Sunday 11 April, Spread a Smile marked our 8th birthday and we wanted to make everyone smile.

The activities began with cake decorating workshops run by our friends from Lola’s Cupcakes. The workshops were offered to children and teenagers spending long periods of time isolating in hospital at both GOSH and UCLH. They helped to ease the boredom and monotony that children experience during long hospital stays. The workshops were also a much-needed opportunity for patients to socialise together virtually.

We also delivered a zoo-ful of Walking Pet Balloons to seriously ill children and teenagers in our NHS partner hospitals. We’re delighted to see the gorgeous smiles that these animals have spread.

Tina Halton, Play Service Lead at St Mary’s Hospital, said, “We were thrilled with the delivery of walking pet balloons. It’s been a long and challenging winter and this has brightened up the hospital environment for our young patients. These balloons provide a much needed distraction from difficult hospital admissions and treatment and have helped to decrease anxiety and make the overall hospital experience more positive.”

Holidays can be particularly difficult for our children and families but thanks to the generous donations of our supporters we were able to spread lots of chocolatey smiles this Easter.

We created an online egg hunt where children worked in virtual teams to solve a series of puzzles to receive their chocolate reward, hosted a series of art & craft activity days for children and teenagers and delivered more than 1,000 eggs to children under the care of our NHS hospital partners.

Huge thanks to everyone who fundriased and/or donated to our Easter egg wish list, including Hain Daniels Group, ICBC Standard Bank London, Morrisons Chalk Farm, Sainsbury’s Camden and Tesco.

We also ran a Easter card making virtual workshop for seriously ill children and their siblings. We were delighted to see some of the lovely creations.

During the week following Easter we ran activity days for children in hospital as well as those who are shielding at home. The days included art workshops and brownie baking as well as a Wild Science animal show. One mum told us, “Our daughter is in and out of GOSH for the next month and has another operation coming up so we are laying low, that means other than going for long walks we have been very boring. Thank you for making today a little more exciting for the children, they loved it!”

The Royal Brompton Hospital, Chelsea has become our latest NHS hospital partner.  As such, from earlier this month, children and teenagers being treated at the hospital’s specialist centre for the treatment of heart and lung diseases have had full access to our services.

Maxine Ovens, Play Services Manager at The Royal Brompton, said, “Spread a Smile’s virtual sessions have been an incredible resource, particularly at a time when access to real life activities has been limited. Spread a Smile have been able to provide our patients with a range of virtual sessions from art to magicians, and are so flexible and supportive to each individual patient’s specific needs. We’ve had such wonderful feedback from our patients and they always seem to finish the session with a smile! Some of our more regular patients now come to us asking to book a session. Nothing is too much trouble for Spread a Smile. They’re always willing to help support our patients and really go that extra mile to provide a wonderful experience.”

Radiotherapy can be incredibly frightening and traumatic for young patients. For those with brain, head and/or neck cancer, they require masks to hold their heads in position for targeted treatment. Since early 2021 we have been involved with a new initiative at The Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, which aims to reduce the anxieties of young children in treatment of head, brain and neck cancers by creating mini radiotherapy masks for their favourite toy.  The mini masks and toys are then used to demonstrate what will happen during their treatment.  Similar to the children’s own masks, our talented Spread Smile artist then hand-paints the mini masks with children’s choice of favourite superhero, TV character or their toy’s original features.

Laura Walter, Director of Services at Spread a Smile explains, “Personalising masks makes them less clinical and the radiotherapy process less frightening.  They also help parents talk more openly with their children about their condition and help children to be more accepting of treatment.  It’s an incredibly important part of Spread a Smile’s work “.

To mark the reopening of The Langham, London on 17 May 2021, the Hotel is launching a new initiative – ‘Stay and Do Good’. The hotel has handpicked ten charities, including Spread a Smile, to support local and national communities each inspired by one of five packages – Future, Empowerment, Care, Together and Heal. Guests can choose their preferred package and The Langham, London will donate £25 per room per stay or  £100 per suite, per stay divided equally between the two charities selected in each package.  Click HERE for more details on the promotion.

Each of the packages will include an overnight stay for two, daily breakfast and a specially selected amenity of a box of chocolate truffles.  With its prominent location set in one of London’s grandest buildings on Regent Street, The Langham, London offers a choice of luxurious guest rooms and suites within walking distance of city’s most covetable sites and amenities.

Stefan Leser, chief executive officer of Langham Hospitality Group comments, “At the heart of our hotels across the globe are the local communities that bring each of the destinations to life.  The work that our charity partners do is critical to future generations and they are aligned with our own Group’s values.  I look forward to working closely with the team at The Langham, London to raise significant funds for good causes in the UK.”

Last year, The Langham, London joined forces with Spread a Smile to offer afternoon tea and a surprise overnight stay voucher to some of the NHS staff that we work with, as well as to many other key workers.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive of Spread a Smile, said, “We are delighted to extend our relationship with The Langham, London and be part of Stay and Do Good. Funds raised from this partnership will enable us to spread much needed smiles & laughter to seriously ill and hospitalised children, some of whom are being treated in a hospital in such close proximity to the hotel.”

For more information on The Langham London’s support of NHS workers throughout the pandemic Click Here.

In February we launched Spread a Smile After School Clubs. The club sessions are virtual and run three afternoons a week, and aim to support children in hospital, those receiving treatment at home, and their siblings by providing a safe space to enjoy shared experiences and benefit from peer support.

The clubs are led by our team of professional entertainers. Each week includes at least one art session. Erin, aged 10, joined the one of the first session – her little brother, Leo, is a long-term patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Erin is at home in Wales. Natalie, Erin’s mum, said, “The art session left Erin feeling proud and happy. She has so much worry going on in her mind about her brother. The After School Club took her mind somewhere else. She was so proud of what she achieved and couldn’t wait to ring me and tell me about it.”  More photos include Annabelle’s icecream and a second with her brother, Austin’s showcasing their colourful seascapes.

For March, we’re running a weekly magic session plus, for under 5s, music and singing sessions.  If you would like to receive more information on After School Club and all of our services for seriously ill children and their siblings please CLICK HERE.

The lovely people from The Entertainer generously donated 1,000 soft and colourful blankets for us to give to children and teenagers in hospital.

Meleka, pictured here, received her blanket while she was receiving radiotherapy treatment at UCLH. Rhonda Alexander, Radiotherapy Play Specialist at UCLH, said “These blankets have been such a lovely item to be able to give to radiotherapy patients. They often have to remove their clothes for treatment and the rooms can be cold and the treatment couch uncomfortable. The blankets help patients to feel cosy and more at ease which enables them to cope more effectively with their treatment. The blankets have also been great for children who have long hospital stays on the wards – they can choose the blanket they want with the design they like best and helps to make their room or space less clinical. Thanks so much for providing these warm and cosy blankets!”