News

Supporting families at Alder Hey in Liverpool

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Spread a Smile today announces its latest hospital partner, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust based in Liverpool. One of Europe’s largest children’s hospitals, treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions, and those children being treated, along with their families, are invited to join the Spread a Smile family and benefit from their services.

Alder Hey Hospital LiverpoolSpread a Smile’s mission is to bring joy and laughter to as many seriously ill children as possible in NHS hospitals, clinical settings, hospices and homes across the UK. Alder Hey joins 38 other major and speciality NHS hospitals and six hospice partners already supported by Spread a Smile, taking the charity one step closer to its aim.

The Spread a Smile team of talented entertainers, including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs, will spend quality time with patients in hospital through one-to-one visits and group sessions. Patients and their families will also be able to access virtual online events and activity sessions, including art clubs, balloon modelling, music lessons and more, enabling the charity to see and support as many people as possible. All with the aim of spreading hundreds of smiles and a lot of happiness to children undergoing treatment for serious illness and their families.

Children at Alder Hey will be able to join special themed virtual activity days celebrating seasonal occasions such as Christmas, benefit from regular treat drops and entertainer visits scheduled throughout the year, all giving seriously ill children and their families the opportunity to join in with fun and exciting experiences that they may otherwise not have access to.

Justine Louise Makin, Play Service Manager, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said, “We would like to say a huge thank you to ‘Spread a Smile’ for the wonderful input we have received from the charity, so far. The kind and generous donations have been invaluable in providing our CYPF with fun and joy during their stay in hospital. Being in hospital is difficult at any time, therefore receiving the amazing toys, activities, materials and equipment that ‘Spread a Smile’ provide, has really put a smile on their faces and helped toward recovery, recuperation and rehabilitation.” 

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive added, “Spread a Smile’s partnership with Alder Hey Specialist Children’s Hospital is an opportunity for us to reach and support even more seriously ill children and young people in different parts of the country. We are delighted to be working together to develop a meaningful and impactful relationship which will support the great work carried out by the Alder Hey ward staff and Play Team and help to spread smiles when they are needed most.” 

Four years of smiles with Micro Scooters

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Spread a Smile and children’s scooter brand Micro Scooters are celebrating four years of partnership, marking a decade of donating scooters to hospitals across the UK to bring moments of fun, movement and freedom to seriously ill children.

Since 2021, Micro Scooters has donated hundreds of scooters to NHS hospitals, where they’ve become a much-loved part of life on the wards. Used by children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses, the scooters provide a rare sense of independence and joy during what is often a long and difficult time.

Micro Scooters has committed to donate 20 scooters along with helmets every month in 2025. These will be distributed to children receiving ongoing care at Spread a Smile’s 39 NHS partner hospitals across the UK.

“We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Micro Scooters,” said Laura Walter, Director of Services at Spread a Smile.
“Their donation offers the opportunity for physical activity, which is crucial to maintaining a child’s well-being. Scooting is an incredibly fun way to encourage children to stay active, especially when they are in hospital for extended periods. It offers a welcome distraction from treatment, supports rehabilitation goals, and helps children feel like kids again.”

Spread a Smile’s mission is to bring joy and laughter to seriously ill children and young people in NHS hospitals, hospices and homes through regular in-person visits and virtual entertainment. Its team of entertainers including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs supports children and families through the toughest of times.

Micro’s donations complement this work by offering entertainment and movement-based support that wouldn’t usually be available in a hospital setting.

“Micro Scooters has always been driven by the mission to give children and families a cleaner, greener way to explore the world,” said Ben Gibson, Managing Director at Micro Scooters.
“Our commitment to supporting children in hospital is something we’re incredibly proud of. We know these scooters offer far more than fun – they provide respite, they support recovery, and they help children feel a little more like themselves. Seeing their faces light up as they scoot through a hospital corridor is a powerful reminder of why we do what we do.”

If you or your company would like to find out more about supporting and partnering with Spread a Smile, please email the fundraising team at fundraising@spreadasmile.org – thank you.

Supporting wellbeing and positive mental health

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Spread a Smile is committed to mental health support, for the families we meet through our entertainer visits, virtual sessions and family events and also for our team, through mental health first aid training and support.

12 – 18 May is Mental Health Awareness Week and we’re shining a spotlight on our work supporting the mental health of all of those we come into contact with as an organisation.

Every day, our entertainers visit children in hospitals and hospices, spreading smiles, making connections and bringing a little bit of joy and happiness during some very difficult times.

“Our entertainer visits are all about making time spent in hospital just a little bit easier. The impact of being in hospital can be huge, particularly if a child is very unwell and has been in hospital for a while, away from family and friends and everything they know and that makes them feel safe. Our entertainers focus on each child as an individual, making them feel special and giving them space and time to just have fun and be a child again. Sharing a smile or a positive experience can go a long way. Our visits are always met with such positive feedback with 100% of healthcare professionals reporting that Spread a Smile entertainer visits have a positive impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing.” (Spread a Smile Healthcare Professional Survey, April – Oct 2024)

The need for mental health support is growing: one in five children in England has a probable mental disorder (Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey, 2023). Spread a Smile currently supports children, young people and families at 39 NHS hospitals and 6 hospices. This includes The Mildred Creak Unit (MCU) at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), a small, intensive intervention unit which supports children aged 7-13 facing complex mental health challenges, including eating disorders and behavioural difficulties. The MCU offers a vital lifeline during difficult times and Spread a Smile is proud to have been supporting the Unit since July 2022 through special bespoke art initiatives and programmes.

Over the last year, Spread a Smile delivered 14 art and entertainment workshops during school holidays, working with the Unit’s Play Specialist and nursing staff to create a safe, supportive space. These workshops allow patients to reconnect with their identities, build confidence, express themselves and process emotions in different ways whilst being part of a shared experience which gives space to take pride in their accomplishments.

We also ran a six week Summer Art Programme in 2024 for children aged 10-16, during which children participated in sessions with professional artists, covering themes including Piaget clocks and Pointillism.

Spread a Smile’s sessions and support have been met with incredibly positive feedback and it’s been wonderful to see the progress made by patients. One patient, initially non-communicative, gradually engaged in activities and, after six months, was confidently chatting and leading a session, with staff describing her transformation as remarkable.

Laura Walter said, “Our work with the MCU shows the profound impact that creative, play-based interventions can have. As the numbers of children experiencing mental health difficulties grow, the work of the MCU and our support for it is more important than ever. We are proud that Spread a Smile’s interactions are making a meaningful difference for children experiencing mental health issues, providing moments of connection and expression, supporting emotional wellbeing and complementing the exceptional care from the MCU staff.”

To find out more about Spread a Smile’s work, visit spreadasmile.org

What a night! Gala Dinner 2025

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What a night for the Spread a Smile 2025 Gala Dinner, generously sponsored by Downing and held at the beautiful Corinthia London.

It was a truly incredible evening, bringing together friends and supporters of Spread a Smile, with an amazing £200,000 raised to support our work spreading smiles and bringing joy and happiness to seriously ill children and young people.

Our host, Spread a Smile Ambassador Suzi Ruffell, expertly guided us through proceedings, and we heard from our Co-Founders and Trustees, Josephine Segal MBE and Vanessa Crocker MBE about their inspiration for setting up the charity back in 2013.

We were also delighted to welcome Yen Chang, Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Clinical Lead for Proton Beam Therapy at University College London Hospital, who was interviewed by Suzi Ruffell about the impact of Spread a Smile’s support for patients, families and also for staff at UCLH.

We were also honoured to welcome the family of Emma Noto who bravely shared their journey with us through a beautiful new film about how Spread a Smile supported Emma, Mum Nathalie, Dad Carmelo and sister Clare after Emma was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare type of soft tissue cancer. We are so grateful to Nathalie and Carmelo for sharing experiences so bravely and you can watch and share Emma’s film here.

The room was filled with laughter and warmth and in true Spread a Smile style, our entertainers, including musicians, singers and magicians were on hand to delight and surprise our guests with their talents. Two of our entertainers, Collette Spinner and Jack Reitman made a huge impact on the audience with their performance of Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli’s ‘The Prayer’. Our magicians Nick, Sacha and Gary wowed the audience with their magic skills and Judge The Poet showcased his talents, making up poems for guests on the spot and expertly leading our pledge section from the stage.

You can take a look at photos from the event here (and a film from the night below), and make sure you keep an eye out for photos of the amazing LEGO® table centrepieces; each one made by one of the families we support using sets donated by our friends at the LEGO Group.

A huge thank you to everyone for joining is last night, for their kindness and commitment and for helping to raise such an incredible amount of money to ensure we can continue spreading smiles when they are needed most.

Particular thanks to our sponsor Downing, Suzi Ruffell for being the perfect host and to Corinthia London for making us all so welcome.

If you or your company would like to support our work further, please reach out to Tash Newall in our fundraising team at natasha@spreadasmile.org to start the conversation.

Silent auction and raffle now live!

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We’re excited to announce that our silent auction and raffle are now live!

This special fundraising initiative coincides with our upcoming Spread a Smile Gala Dinner, sponsored by Downing, taking place on Tuesday 6 May 2025 at Corinthia London. Even if you can’t attend the dinner, you can still participate, and support Spread a Smile, with the auction and raffle open from now until 10:15pm BST on 6 May.

We’ve collated a selection of incredible prizes in the silent auction including:

  • Tickets for Coldplay’s sold out opening night at Wembley
  • Premier League tickets
  • Diamond jewellery and pamper sessions
  • Tickets for Latitude Festival, West End shows and more

And for just £10 a ticket, you could be in with a chance of winning an incredible prize in our raffle, including a two-night stay at the idyllic Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire. So what are you waiting for?

Place your bids and buy tickets here!

Every bid and raffle ticket purchased helps us spread more smiles to seriously ill children and their families across the country.

How it works:

  • Register: Sign up in under a minute on the Givergy site.
  • Bid or buy: Place bids on your favourite auction items or purchase raffle tickets at just £10 each.
  • Watch the leaderboard: Receive instant notifications if you’re outbid.
  • Celebrate: Winners will be announced during the Gala Dinner on 6 May (around 10.15 – 10.30pm BST) or by email on 7 May.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, 100% of the proceeds from all auction items will directly benefit Spread a Smile, supporting our mission to bring joy to seriously ill children and their families.

Please do check back in as new prizes may be added.

Place your bids and buy tickets here!

Over 18’s only, T&Cs apply. This raffle is subject to the regulations of the Gambling Act 2005 and we have the appropriate license/registration.

Egg-cellent Easter activities for all

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Seasonal holidays such as Christmas or Easter can often be a difficult time for families with a seriously ill child and managing illness or spending time in hospital often means that families are not able to do all the things they’d like to do. At Spread a Smile, we try and bring a little bit of fun to these times, when it’s really needed, and for Easter 2025, we organised a range of exciting activities to support children and young people in hospital and at home.

????Easter treat drop – Thanks to generous support from our friends at Hain Daniels, we delivered thousands of chocolate eggs, cuddly toys and games to all of our NHS hospital partners for staff to give out to seriously ill children on the wards.

As always, the lovely team at DPD UK supported us with the deliveries, and we’re grateful to them and everyone who donated eggs and gifts including ABC Bridging, All Aboard Charity Shops,  Alt HAN Co, ICAB, Garden House School, Hasbro, Mouse House, Rob Key and Scor.

????Easter bunny visit – The Easter bunny hopped along to join our team of entertainers on hospital visits to University College Hospital, London, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Evelina London Children’s Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital, giving out gifts and helping to bring a little bit of Spring happiness to the wards.

????Egg-cellent virtual visits – We also organised some exciting virtual sessions for families to enjoy at home, including biscuit decorating, balloon modelling, Easter art and a new collaborative dance workshop with I Can Dance UK, for young people with additional needs.

Thank you again to everyone who has helped make all of the above possible and please do get in touch by emailing fundraising@spreadasmile.org if you’d like to support our seasonal activities in the future.

Happy 12th Birthday Spread a Smile

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On 11 April 2025, Spread a Smile celebrated 12 years since the charity was founded, with a special party for patients and families in The Lagoon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

We were delighted to welcome our friends from Redstor who kindly supported the event, and it was such a lovely day, with music, magic, fairy fun, balloons and delicious cupcakes from the amazing Lola’s Cupcakes. There was so much fun to be had by the patients, families and staff that joined us, and it was lovely to celebrate with everyone at GOSH, where our work began 12 years ago.

In 2013, Co-Founder Josephine’s young nephew, Aaron, was receiving treatment at GOSH. After noticing that Aaron was becoming increasingly withdrawn, Josephine 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 patients across the wards, providing regular in person entertainer visits, online sessions, treat drops and much more.

We are extremely proud of our work over the past 12 years spreading smiles to thousands of seriously ill children and their families and extremely grateful to all of our supporters for helping to make it all possible.

Please email us if you or your company would like to find out more about supporting future events like this – we’d love to hear from you!

A huge thank you to Redstor and Neil, Olena, Kateryna and Philipos for supporting the party and here’s to many more years spreading joy and happiness when it’s needed most.

Spreading Smiles with Scamp & Dude

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In April 2025, Spread a Smile teamed up with our friends from Scamp & Dude to hand out 200 of their Superhero Sleep Buddies on our entertainer visits to King’s College Hospital, London and the Children’s Haematology Department at St Mary’s Hospital.

The soft and huggable Superhero Sleep Buddies are designed to support children with separation anxiety, providing a little bit of comfort and something to cuddle when needed most. Scamp & Dude generously donated the Sleep Buddies for our entertainers to hand out as part of our usual visits to children on the wards in hospital.

As always, the visits were filled with singing, magic, music and fairy fun with so many smiles shared and connections made. The children loved their sleep buddies and a huge thank you to Scamp & Dude for helping to bring some comfort and joy to seriously ill children in hospital.

Laura Walter, Director of Services said, “It is Spread a Smile’s mission to spread as many smiles as possible to seriously children and young people in hospital when they need it most. The Scamp & Dude Superhero Sleep Buddies were so well received and we can’t thank our friends from Scamp & Dude enough for helping to bring a little extra joy to the wards.” 

If you or your company would like to support our work, please email us at fundraising@spreadasmile.org

Spread a Smile superheroes wear running trainers

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It seems apt that the day after the TCS London Marathon is National Superheroes Day. So today on 28 April, we’re celebrating our 17 brilliant, superhero London Marathon runners for taking on this iconic event on behalf of Spread a Smile and together raising over £53,000 to support our vital work spreading smiles to seriously ill children and young people.

It really was an incredible day with an incredible atmosphere, with the largest team of runners we’ve ever seen running for Team Smile.

We joined our friends from Children with Cancer UK along the route at miles 6, 12 and 24 to make sure we showed as much support as possible to our team. After the race, we welcomed many of our runners to a post run party with Children with Cancer UK, with Spread a Smile entertainers hosting the children’s entertainment area. Fairy Jasmin was there to spread some Spread a Smile sparkle, artist Sophie delighted with her creative face painting and magicians Ian and Nick brought the magic touch to the party.

We can’t thank our runners – Andrei, Cara, Carly, Chris, Craig, Dylan, Gavin, Hazel, Jack, Joseph, Max, Myfanwy, Nat, Nick, Ollie, Richard and Will – enough for their support and commitment. Together they have raised an incredible amount which will make a huge impact to our work brining joy and laughter to seriously ill children and young people during their darkest times.

Join Team Smile in 2026!  Click here to register your interest for a Team Smile 2026 London Marathon places Or email us to find out about joining us for the London to Brighton bike ride or our Three Peaks Challenge.

Liam Conlon MP joins Spread a Smile hospital visit

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Liam Conlon, the MP for Beckenham and Penge, joined Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile CEO, on a visit to King’s College Hospital yesterday (Wednesday 23rd April), where he met some of the children and families that Spread a Smile support and saw their work first-hand.

Spread a Smile works in partnership with the Play Team at King’s College Hospital to spread smiles, bring joy, entertainment, and moments of respite. During the visit, Mr Conlon met with young patients, their families, and NHS staff, and witnessed first-hand the powerful impact of the charity’s in-hospital entertainers. On the day we were joined by Collette, a Spread a Smile singer, and Nick, a magician.

Mr Conlon’s visit was particularly poignant given his personal connection to the NHS. As a teenager, he spent several years undergoing treatment at the Royal London Hospital and Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital following a serious accident at age 13.

While it is not the hospital where Liam was treated, King’s College Hospital treats hundreds of his constituents in Beckenham and Penge every year. Mr Conlon said the experience of visiting another children’s ward was “important to him.”

He said, “Today’s visit was very special to me because it is personal. I spent years growing up on NHS children’s wards as a teenager after an accident at 13, and I owe so much to the NHS. And whilst children’s wards are in some ways a grim reality, they are also places of great hope, deep compassion, and world-class care. That is made possible by NHS staff and the people behind incredible initiatives like Spread a Smile which will make such a difference to children and their families.”

“I’m so grateful to the Spread a Smile team and the staff at King’s for the incredible work they do every single day.”

Spread a Smile currently partners with 39 NHS hospitals and six hospices across the UK, delivering in-person and virtual entertainment. Their partnership with King’s started in January 2020 and we currently make three visits a month to the hospital and have plans to increase this in the coming months.

A huge thank you to Mr Conlan for joining us on the visit and to all the team at Kings College Hospital for their support. Find out more about Spread a Smile’s work here.