Viv Levene

Last week we were delighted to host a Smile Party to celebrate Abigail’s eighth birthday. The virtual party, which was co-hosted by our wonderful supporter, Lola’s Cupcakes, included unicorn decorating with lots of icing and sprinkles, and allowed Abigail to celebrate with family and friends.

We’ve been entertaining Abigail and her family since July 2019 when Abigail was at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Abigail has regular appointments and stays at GOSH for her very rare condition, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and travels from her home in Yorkshire for her care. Abigail especially loves being entertained by our magicians and artists and our virtual visits have meant that her sister at home has been able to join in the entertainment.

Kathryn, Abigail’s mum, said, “THANK YOU so much.  Birthdays in lockdown are hard, especially when disrupted by hospitals.  You really made Abigail’s day with her cupcakes.  She enjoyed it so much.  It was lovely to see her smiling and happy.  She also LOVED seeing her school friends and her cousin.

“Thank you is such an inadequate word for what you do….. I cannot express just how much it means to me to have your support.  Hospital visits and bad news conversations meant I really hadn’t given any thought to Abigail’s birthday this year, and you just solved it for me.  So THANK YOU”

The marvellous Monty took on a huge challenge for Spread a Smile in January. He ran a full marathon over four days in memory of  his friend, Louie, who sadly passed away last July.

Louie had told Monty about Spread a Smile and the times the charity had entertained Louie and his family, creating some beautiful memories, and so Monty decided he wanted to help other families create positive memories together in the future.

When Monty was running, he imagined Louie spurring him on to keep going. Monty said that Louie was always a positive and encouraging friend, especially when they played football together, so this helped Monty during his marathon.

Congratulations Monty on such a wonderful achievement.

Friday 29 January was National Puzzle Day! To celebrate, we delivered packs of puzzles and games to children and teenagers in hospital, as well as providing them with links to download puzzles that they can solve on their tablets and phones.

Companies including Readly, Cheatwell Games and Usborne Books generously donated puzzles, games and digital subscriptions to entertain children and teenagers during their long hospital stays.

Through Spread a Smile’s own research, we know that being seriously ill can be extremely isolating and monotonous for children and their parents. Children and teenagers in hospital are currently more isolated than ever before – they can only have one parent visitor (meaning their other parent and siblings can’t see them), no outside organisations can visit face to face, and even the usual play activities in hospital play rooms are cancelled because of covid isolation rules. Digital activities and puzzles, which children can access from their hospital rooms and cubicles, are more vital than ever.

National Puzzle Day represents a fantastic opportunity to bring more puzzles and games into the hospital environment. Puzzles bring opportunities to develop problem solving skills and set children and teenagers achievable challenges. For children experiencing extended hospital stays offering new opportunities for challenge and distraction is crucial.

On Sunday 20 December, Jez Allinson, aka the Running Stormtrooper, has completed his 2020 challenge of running 1,000 miles and fundraising for Spread a Smile and Make a Wish, all whilst dressed in full Stormtrooper armour.

Despite it not being the finish he’d planned (to run from Elstree Studios to Pinewood Studies), due to the new covid restrictions, Jez ran the last 18 miles of his 2020 challenge around his RAF base, RAF Benson.

Thank you so much to Jez for this amazing achievement which will help spread smiles to seriously ill children and teenagers.

To find out more and to donate to Jez’s fundraising efforts, please visit https://stormtrooperrun.com/ 

Our wonderful supporters have been continuing to fundraise for us, ensuring that we will be spreading smiles to seriously ill children and teenagers in hospital. Thank you to everyone who has fundraised and donated, it means so much to us and to the children and their families who need the smiles and joy now more than ever.

If you’re interested to find out how you can fundraise for Spread a Smile, please email fundraising@spreadasmile.org

• The wonderful Pass the Parcel team fundraised for and made up 300 spectacular gift parcels to give to seriously ill children in hospital this festive season. We went with the team to deliver some of the bags to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
• Yavneh College in Borehamwood has chosen Spread a Smile as one of it’s charities this year. We were delighted to receive some beautiful bracelets made by some of the pupils. They also donated lots of fantastic gifts for our Gift Drive.
• Aimee Johnson baked, packaged and sold delicious tea boxes as part of her bat mitzvah preparations. Aimee has donated all of the money raised to Spread a Smile.
• The fabulous team at ebloggers has raised a wonderful £1,352 for Spread a Smile, with thanks to Laura Wills (aka The Fashion Bug Blog) and Louise Roe.
• Alcester Grammar School raised over £650 for Spread a Smile with a non-uniform day.
• Our wonderful supporter, ICBC, held a Christmas raffle in aid of Spread a Smile.

Our wonderful supporter, Lola’s Cupcakes, has spread Christmas joy and smiles with virtual cake decorating workshops at both Great Ormond Street Hospital and at UCLH.

Children and teenagers at both hospitals were sent cake and cupcake decorating kits and Lola’s led a virtual decorating session to help the participants create their stunning, seasonal Christmas designs.

One mum said, “We are so thankful for the great time we had at Great Ormond Street Hospital decorating these Christmas cupcakes from Spread a Smile and Lola’s. These kind of surprises cheer up the days. Merry Christmas everyone!”

To find out more about Lola’s decorating kits, click here.

On Sunday 13 December we were delighted to spread Chanukah smiles with the team at Camp Simcha. Together, we ran an hour of magic and art entertainment to families supported by both charities. 17 families joined the virtual session.

The magic session was taken by our fabulous magician, Sacha, and the art was run by our wonderful artist, Belinda.

It was a fantastic afternoon and a great way to celebrate Chanukah.

For more Chanukah fun, please visit Smile TV.

Spread a Smile’s We Will Be There Campaign took place over 9-10 December and we were blown away by the phenomenal support it received. The aim was to raise £250,000 in a 36 hour online fundraising appeal, and, currently, the total stands at an incredible £346,787. The money raised will help us to continue our virtual and face to face services in 2021 as well as provide an fun-packed Christmas programme for seriously ill children in hospital.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of so many events and activities had severely impacted our income and this fundraiser has helped to make-up for the shortfall in funds.

We made a short film for the campaign all about Charlotte and told by her dad, Trevor. We’ve have been privileged to entertain Charlotte and her sister over the last seven years.

Life for a seriously ill child is always tough but never more so than at Christmas when families should be together. This year, many hospitalised children will be too unwell or too at risk to go home and will spend December confined to their hospital beds and restricted to just one visitor – making what should be the happiest time of the year unimaginably hard for them, their parents and siblings.   Spread a Smile is one of the few charities increasing its presence in hospitals this December and we will be delivering much needed joy and spreading smiles to more than 4,500 serious ill children at Christmas plus hundreds more every month into 2021 and while lockdown restrictions remain in place.

Our Christmas campaign will fund an action packed programme of activity from mid-December including a virtual Santa’s Grotto, festive virtual visits with our wonderful entertainers, virtual art workshops, new video content on Smile TV (including the screening of a pantomime), entertainment on Christmas and New Year’s Day and the delivery of 1,450 presents to children in hospital and to those isolating at home.

Funds raised will also support our virtual entertainer visits and Smile TV in 2021 to seriously ill children under the care of our nine hospital and hospice partnerships. Launched in March 2020, this digital entertainment has been of invaluable support to children during lockdown, helping to distract them from pain and treatment, increasing their treatment compliancy and, most importantly, enabling them to remain connected to family life through positive shared interactions.  Our virtual visits have also allowed us to extend the reach and impact to the most isolated and sick children, spreading joy at a time when parents believed that nothing could make their child smile.

There’s still time to donate to the campaign. If you’d like to make a donation please click here.

We’re so thrilled that this year, Santa has agreed to spread smiles and arrange virtual Grotto visits to the children that Spread a Smile entertains.

Santa will be virtually visiting children who are in our partner hospitals for the two weeks before Christmas. His days will be filled meeting children on the wards where Spread a Smile entertains, and he will be joined in his Lapland Grotto by different Spread a Smile entertainers. He will also by visited by some of the families where their children are shielding at home. We’re expecting Santa to visit around 200 seriously ill children over the two week period.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive of Spread a Smile, was interviewed on BBC News together with the wonderful Hillyer family. We’ve been entertaining Austin throughout the pandemic, and he and his twin sister, Annabel, made a virtual visit to Santa’s Grotto last week.