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Over the last month, we’ve had a number of incredible art activities for children across various hospitals to take part in! Art classes, whether virtually or in person, can be a great way for the critically ill children who we support in hospitals to take their focus away from their condition and treatment, and towards something creative, colourful, and fun!

One of these fantastic classes was a Banksy themed painting workshop with teenagers at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Laura, one of our resident artists, taught them about painting techniques. This included using different brush strokes, blending colours, using tones to compliment each other, and creating an eye-catching image! Those who took part had an amazing time and were able to come away having created a piece of art they could be proud of.

As well as this, we celebrated Eid Mubarak with a virtual lantern making class, featuring Aisha, one of our arts and crafts entertainers! For many children in hospital and their families, holidays are the hardest part of the year, as they are unable to celebrate together in the ways that they are used to. Therefore, having a communal activity such as this which they can get involved with and be engaged in is vitally important. The lantern holds a special significance during Eid, as it symbolises hope, and a light shining your way out of the darkness. Being able to spread joy and laughter to these children, using these lanterns, was a wonderful way to honour the holiday.

Finally, thanks to the wonderful work of one of our resident artists, Marina, we were able to give the outpatient ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital a colourful make-over! Painting some of the walls and windows to show vibrant pictures of children, flowers, and butterflies, the unit now feels much more like home for children and their families.

Our Spread a Smile team took seven oncology patients from University College London Hospital to an epic night of music and dancing at the Craig David concert at the O2 Arena. (Those who remember 90s garage fondly will be able to appreciate what an incredible night it was for all who attended!)

Thanks to our lovely friends at Rays of Sunshine who supplied the tickets for our young people, as we were able to bring along their friends and family to enjoy the show together. We were also right in the heart of the action, with amazing seats!

A huge thank you is also due to Craig and his team who donated signed and personalised merchandise to those who attended, to go along with the amazing sing-song.

Craig was also kind enough to engage with us after the event on Instagram, saying, ‘Love that you all had a great time. I enjoyed signing the tees at home before the show, putting all my love in to them so they would be felt in the heart when worn.

Those who attended will surely remember this night for a very long time.

Hakuna Matata!

We were delighted to be able to bring 55 people from 14 families to the West End to see The Lion King at the magical Lyceum Theatre, on Thursday, the 28^th of April. Not only were the children treated like VIPs in the Disney Ambassador Lounge, but we also brought some of our own magicians and entertainers to revel in the experience.

To be able to provide a night to remember for critically-ill children and their families, immersing in the majesty and mysticism of the show, made the day a truly special one.

Being able to bring the children and also their families was so important, as it allows both to experience some normalcy and time together, outside of a hospital environment. The day also provided a welcome and necessary distraction for many families from the intense and serious treatments that many of the children are going through.

On top of the show, we also had fairies, face painting, animal balloon making, and goodie bags to go home with!

Last Tuesday, 11 teams comprised of our wonderful supporters and partners came together for a friendly 5-a-side football tournament.

Our tournament took over the Castlehaven Community pitches in Camden as teams battled it out for the Plate and the Cup. The Teams came from Enra Finance, ICBC Standard Bank, LMAC Group, Opticore IT, CMS Distribution, Canary Wharf Contractors, Hamilton Barnes, and Uncommon.

Congratulations to the winners of the plate, Canary Wharf Contractors, and of the Cup, LMAC Group! Even more importantly, we raised over £8,000 to spread smiles to children in hospital.

Also, a huge thank you to both LMAC Group and Canary Wharf Contractors for generously sponsoring the event.

While Easter isn’t all about chocolate, it’s definitely the best part!

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, we delivered over 2,700 easter eggs to hospitalised children across our NHS partners in the lead up to Easter weekend.

Our Spread a Smile team also hosted virtual meet and greets with the Easter Bunny, and children were able to get creative with Easter wreath making classes.

It was an extra busy week, which required a tremendous amount of effort and care from all involved, for which we are hugely grateful. Being able to bring joy and levity to children on a holiday which can be an especially hard time for young people in hospital, made all of the challenges worth it.

We were able to exceed our target of delivered eggs thanks to our wonderful supporters, including All Aboard, Enra Finance, Bregal Milestone, Binfield Road Surgery, E Imagination Store, Little Learners UK, and Chancellor’s School.

An extra special thank you goes to Mars UK, who donated over 1,500 Easter Eggs, and His Church Charity who supported us with the logistics of the massive delivery!

Our very own Head of Family Events and superstar, Natalie Donaldson, will be running in the upcoming Vitality 10k run on the 2nd May. Having joined Spread a Smile as an entertainer nine years ago, Natalie has been a long standing member of the Spread a Smile family. Through her experience, she has seen first-hand the incredible impact our work has had on families and seriously ill children.

She has been training in her team of four who are all going to be running to raise money for Spread a Smile. Despite discovering that she might be more of a 5k person, she is determined to run and complete the challenge for all the children we support.

Natalie says: “Providing a moment of normality and joy for children who are suffering with serious illnesses is the most valuable part of my job. By taking on the 10k challenge, I hope to raise money to help us do many more virtual and in-person hospital visits which make such a difference to patients (and hopefully reach the finish line!)”

If you would like to join Natalie’s team and run in the Vitality 10k, check out our challenge events page here: https://spreadasmile.org/challenge-events/

All members of our Team Smile will receive running vests, t-shirts as well as any help and advice you need. We’ll also be there on the day in full voice to cheer you on!

Booking is now live for the 2022 Spread a Smile golf days on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th September, returning after much demand to the stunning Melbourne Course at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.

To book a team, please email rosie@spreadasmile.org. We are limited to 24 teams per day, so do get in touch to avoid missing out. 

Sponsorship is so important to the success of all of our events, and we hope you might consider taking on one of our sponsorship packages, starting from £250 for tee sponsorship (please email for more information). Please know that by increasing your support, you will be helping us to spread many more smiles to seriously ill and hospitalised children.

We very much hope to see you in September, to experience our unique Spread a Smile hospitality and magic!

We are incredibly excited to announce that comedian, writer, and all-round fabulous person, Suzi Ruffell, has become a Spread a Smile ambassador.

Suzi came across our charity when a friend’s child was in hospital and saw what a difference our entertainers made. Since then, she has supported us by generously donating her winnings from TV appearances on The Tipping Point and The Weakest Link, and she headlined and curated an incredible comedy fundraiser in December 2021, at The Comedy Store, bringing along a host of her incredibly funny friends.

Suzi said: “I’m honoured to become an ambassador of Spread a Smile, the work they do is incredible, bringing joy and laughter to children and their families in the hardest of times. I’m very proud to be part of the Spread a Smile family and I look forward to helping raise more money for their wonderful work.”

We hope to bring bucket loads of laughter and cheer through our new partnership with Suzi who will be hosting another comedy night later this year in aid of the thousands of critically ill children and families that we support at Spread a Smile.

Lucy Jackson, CEO of Spread a Smile said: “We are honoured and thrilled to have Suzi as a Spread a Smile ambassador. Her energy, kindness, and laughter reflect our charity spirit and our mission to bring a little bit of happiness and distraction to hospitalised children and their families every day. It’s an absolute pleasure to have Suzi in the Spread a Smile family.”

To stay up to date with the fundraising events we have coming up, you can keep an eye out on our news pages or sign up to our newsletter here.

We are thrilled to have partnered with the Demelza Hospice in London. The hospice provides specialist one-to-one care and support for critically ill babies, children, and young people up to the age of 18.

Our team will be visiting the children at Demelza Hospice in person every month and families will also have access to our range of virtual events as part of our new partnership. We hope our services will make a huge difference in supporting Demelza Hospice’s care of seriously ill children.

Spread a Smile’s resident entertainers, Jasmin and Daniel, visited the children for the first time this month, sprinkling a little bit of joy with dancing, singing, parachute games and magic shows.

Bethany Harris, Senior Healthcare Assistant at Demelza Hospice, said: “Since Spread a Smile started visiting, it feels as though we all have our sparkle back. Lockdown in a hospice has had its challenges, making memories with children and families at the forefront of what we do. It has been really lovely to have such incredible visits from Jasmin and Daniel after not having visitors for so long. They just know how to make the children feel special.”

We cannot wait to visit the children at Demelza Hospice again to spread more smiles.

In March, we partnered with Character World to gift 2,000 blankets to children in hospital. Character World, who work with some of the world’s leading gaming, music, and film companies to create licensed products, donated the blankets which we then delivered to children across the UK.

Featuring popular children’s characters including Baby Shark, Lego, Stranger Things, LOL OMG and Minecraft, the blankets have already started to bring smiles to faces of the children across the 23 Spread a Smile hospital partners, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, University College Hospital, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, Leicester Children’s Hospital, Christie Hospital in Manchester, and many more.

We have distributed the blankets alongside our usual programme of in-hospital and virtual entertainment, which includes fairies, magicians, singers, face-painters, therapy dogs that make bedside visits, as well as organised art initiatives and family events.

This effort was part of our aim to spread 40,000 smiles this year.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive, Spread a Smile said: “These blankets make such a difference to our young patients, bringing smiles, warmth and comfort, making the hospital environment more child-friendly and less clinical. We can’t thank the team at Character World enough for making this possible. Our partners are so important to the work that we do in spreading some much needed joy at some of the darkest moments.”

Danny Schweiger, Character World Joint Managing Director added: “Character World is proud to support such an important and inspirational organisation. The work that Spread a Smile does is fantastic, and we are proud to have been able to donate some of our fantastic products.”