News

LEGO tour for families

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Last month we were delighted to take some of the amazing families supported by Spread a Smile to visit the LEGO Group’s office in London for a very special day out.

12 children and their families joined us for a fun-filled day, kindly hosted by the LEGO Group and including a tour of the offices, engaging LEGO based activities, lunch and magic from Spread a Smile Ambassador Richard Jones.

The day was a huge success with our families enjoying the chance to explore, take in some of the incredible LEGO® brick creations and find out more about the iconic bricks.

“Thank you Spread a Smile for a fabulous event and to all the LEGO London Hub team for giving their time and sharing their passion and knowledge for all things LEGO and play. We felt so very lucky to attend and experience the tour of their fantastic offices.” Claire, Mum to Eva

Experiences such as this make a huge difference to our families, providing special opportunities for togetherness and enjoyment in amongst the worries of serious illness. We are so grateful to the LEGO Group for their continued support and creativity in helping to spread smiles to the children and young people we support.

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

Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation Golf Day

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A huge thank you to our friends from the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation for their continued support and commitment, helping us bring joy and happiness to seriously ill children and their families.

Last month, they hosted their annual Golf Day with Spread a Smile as one of their chosen charities, raising vital funds to support our work.

The Trustees of the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation said: “We were delighted to support Spread a Smile for a second year running. Having their magicians with us at the golf day was a great way for our supporters to see the charity’s work in action. Our donation will fund Spread a Smile’s family events, giving seriously ill children and their families a memorable day out, which is a much-needed respite from their pain and treatment.”

Spread a Smile’s Chief Executive, Lucy Jackson said, “We are extremely grateful for everything the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation is doing to ensure we can spread even more smiles to children in hospitals and hospices across the country. Spread a Smile doesn’t receive any government funding, so support such as this is vital for the continuation of our services and we can’t thank the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation enough.”

To find out more about how you or your company can become part of the Spread a Smile family, please get in touch with the fundraising team at fundraising@spreadasmile.org

Real Estate dinner success

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Last week, the Spread a Smile Real Estate Committee hosted their fourth dinner, bringing together leading professionals from across the real estate sector for an engaging evening of good food and topical discussion.

Hosted at Uncommon’s brand new office space in Holborn, we were joined by prominent PR figure and host of the popular PropCast podcast, Andrew Teacher, alongside John Stevens, political editor of The Mirror, for an interesting discussion around of the effect of the upcoming UK and US elections on the real estate sector.

Guests also found out more about the work of Spread a Smile and the importance of their support to ensure the continuation of our work. The evening was a huge success and an innovative way of engaging friends new and old.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive at Spread a Smile, said “We are so grateful to all the guests who joined us and generously supported our work and we are particularly grateful to Chris Davies and his team at Uncommon for hosting us in their wonderful new office space in Holborn. Our real estate committee is a wonderful way to raise awareness and funds and to build our network of supporters.”

The Real Estate Committee is chaired by Shaun Simons, Founder of Compton and was launched in September 2023 to explore new avenues for raising funds and awareness. The Committee brings together key industry figures; Richard Fine and Dan Uzan, Brotherton, alongside James Lass, Swiss Life Asset Managers, Michael Mirelman, GRE Finance and Chris Davies, CEO, Uncommon.

We are extremely grateful to all of the Committee, our guests, speakers Andrew and John and our friends at Uncommon for their support and for helping to make this event such a success.

To find out more about the Committee or how your company could get involved with supporting Spread a Smile, please email Lucy Keith at lucykeith@spreadasmile.org.

Feeling the speed at F1 Arcade

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The Spread a Smile family events team has been busy over the past couple of months organising some brilliant, varied and exciting events for the families we support.

Earlier this month we took 13 of the seriously ill children and young people we support along with their siblings and families for an exhilarating afternoon at F1 Arcade in London.

It was brilliant to see everyone trying out the Formula 1 simulators, racing against each other and enjoying the buzz and excitement of the experience.

As always, the Spread a Smile entertainers were also on hand with magic, face painting and singing and our guests were treated to some delicious pizza and ice creams generously donated by Simply Ice Cream.

If you would like to find out more about registering for our family events, please click here.

All of our family events are free of charge for our families to attend, so if you are able to make a donation to help us continue to provide these brilliant experiences, we’d be so grateful, thank you.

Families enjoy afternoon tea at Corinthia London

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As part of our ongoing partnership with Corinthia London, two of the families we support were invited to experience the hotel’s new flower themed afternoon tea in collaboration with FLOWERBX.

“I do not have the words to say how grateful we are and how amazing today has been. I am so close to tears holding them back.”

Our guests enjoyed a wonderfully relaxed afternoon, taking time out together away from the pressures and worries of hospital appointments and treatment plans. There was also time to sit underneath the beautiful flower tree created in the foyer of the hotel by FLOWERBX to celebrate the approach of Summer and the Chelsea Flower Show.

“Thank you so, so much for today. There are no words to express our gratitude and Elsa said it was the best day. You are all such wonderful selfless people and without you all our days would be so much harder. The smile you bring to Elsa’s face with your generosity is just amazing. The staff at the Corinthia were wonderful, they could not have done more for us.” Elsa’s Mum

We are so grateful to everyone at Corinthia London for providing this wonderful opportunity for our families and making everyone so welcome. Also for collecting for Spread a Smile this month and generously donating £10 from every Afternoon Tea to Spread a Smile until 29 May.

You can read more about this wonderful initiative here.

A day to remember at The Lion King

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Spread a Smile’s theatre trips for the families of seriously ill children really are something special and last week’s trip to see The Lion King musical at the Lyceum Theatre, London was no exception.

An incredible 10 families joined us for this special treat and we made sure they were completely spoilt. With a pre-show party full of delicious pizza, snacks, face painting, magic, singing and Lola’s Cupcakes, our families were able to relax and enjoy themselves, sharing many laughs and smiles together.

The Lion King is an incredible spectacle and our guests had a wonderful time, escaping into the magic of Africa. The performance was followed by a meet and greet with some of the cast members, who generously came out to spend time with our VIP guests and building on special memories for years to come.

“Noah absolutely loved it, from the moment we stepped foot into the building we felt so very VIP – like royalty, spoilt rotten by the team at Spread a Smile. Every moment felt so magical. Noah was very excited and as soon as it started, he was mesmerised, singing along to the songs, repeating the script and wiggling away to all the beats.

“Noah was blown away during the meet and greet, he had his eyes locked in on the cast the whole time and he felt so special having pictures with them.

“Thank you so much for such a magical, enchanting VIP experience and for making us feel so very special. We had to remember to take off our invisible crowns on the way out! I’m so grateful to you and the Spread a Smile team for giving us such a special memorable experience that will be imprinted on Noah’s memory for a lifetime.” Khadijah, Noah’s Mum

A huge thank you to everyone at the Lyceum Theatre and the cast and crew for making us feel so welcome. Also to Lola’s Cupcakes for the delicious treats.

“Thank you to you and the extended team for such a wonderful day and the pure joy of experiencing the Lion King for the first time. Eva loved every minute and was so lovely to see her confidence grow since the last session to chat to everyone, you do really all make everyone feel at ease. Such wonderful memories to cherish.” Claire, Eva’s Mum

Please donate to help ensure we can continue to provide these wonderful moments of respite and joy for the seriously ill children and families we support.

Annual parent/carer survey

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Calling all parents and carers!

If your family receives our services, please take five minutes to complete our annual parent/carer survey so we can understand your needs and make sure we’re doing everything we can to support them.

Complete the survey here.

Thank you so much in advance.

Success for our first Padel Tournament

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Last month Spread a Smile held it’s first ever Padel Tournament, generously sponsored by our friends at XO3D.

Taking place at the Stratford Padel Club we were joined by some brilliant teams, all ready to explore this exciting sport and help raise vital funds to bring joy and happiness to seriously ill children and their families.

Padel is a mix between tennis and squash and usually played in doubles on an enclosed court one third the size of a tennis court. The sport is known for combining action with fun and social interaction, it’s easy to pick up and suitable for players of all ages and skills to join in together. We are extremely grateful to Stratford Padel Club for making us so welcome and everyone who joined us on the day, helping t0 make it such a success.

Also to our brilliant sponsor XO3D who said; “XO3D has always felt that supporting charities and worthwhile causes is an important part of being in business and giving back to the community.

“Only one member of the XO3D team had played Padel before. We were all incredibly excited to try what seemed to be a combination of tennis and squash. A lot of craziness, a lot of running around, and a great team day out. The fact that our efforts were also contributing to such a worthy cause, made it even more enjoyable. The biggest highlight was the resounding support from the crowd, as well as mingling with other companies and teams who were also involved in the day. I don’t think a single person left without a huge grin on their face.

“A massive thanks to the team at Spread a Smile for showing us that it’s not only the children that they can work their magic with.”

Please email us at fundraising@spreadasmile.org to find out more about this year’s event and sign up to our monthly e-news to stay up to date as information and sponsorship opportunities are announced.

You can also read more about this year’s event from our friends at XO3D here.

Mildreds May afternoon tea treat

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Last week, our friends from Mildreds Restaurants welcomed Spread a Smile and some of the amazing families we support for another wonderful afternoon tea.

Six families joined us at Mildreds in Covent Garden, London, enjoying a delicious vegan spread and entertainment from Mr Magic and face painting by Marina, our Head of Art. Spread a Smile Co-Founder Josephine Segal also joined in the fun along with her therapy dog, Buddy.

We are extremely grateful to everyone at Mildreds Restaurants for their ongoing support through their monthly tea parties, alongside other incredible initiatives. They provide a wonderful opportunity for seriously ill children to enjoy an afternoon out with their families and forget about the worries of illness and hospitals for a while. Outings like this are a welcome chance for respite and fun.

Sam Anstey, Managing Director at Mildreds said, ‘We are proud to be working with such a special charity. Spread a Smile do amazing work and all our teams are so pleased to be able to support them. It has been great to be involved and to experience the impact that Spread a Smile have in helping others.’

Please consider making a donation to help ensure Spread a Smile can continue to provide outings such as these, spreading joy and happiness when it’s needed most. Thank you.

Rennie Grove Peace Hospice – New partner

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Spread a Smile today announces its newest hospice partner, Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, which provides specialist support for children with life-limiting illness and their families across Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The Spread a Smile team of talented entertainers, including musicians, artists and therapy dogs, will support events for the children and their families at Rennie Grove Peace, spending quality time with patients and helping to spread smiles through music, magic, singing and more.

Children and young people supported by Rennie Grove Peace will also be able to join in with fun and exciting experiences and seasonal Spread a Smile initiatives such as Christmas activities and treat drops, all with the aim of spreading smiles and a lot of happiness to children undergoing treatment and care for serious illness, alongside their families.

Spread 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.  Rennie Grove Peace joins four other hospices, and 32 major and speciality NHS hospitals already supported by Spread a Smile, taking the charity one step closer to its aim, to spread smiles across the whole of the UK.

Karen Raney-Marr, Play Specialist at Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, says: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Spread a Smile to bring new and exciting experiences to our young patients and families. The importance of play in supporting young patients with a life-limiting diagnosis can’t be overstated.  Allowing children and families to connect through play and make precious memories can make a huge difference and is something we focus on with the young people we support. We look forward to working with Spread a Smile to continue and grow this work in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.”

Laura Walter, Spread a Smile Director of Services added, “Rennie Grove Peace is a very special charity and we are delighted to be working with their wonderful team to help bring some joy and laughter to the children and families. Earlier this month Spread a Smile entertainers, Sar with her guitar and Fairy Francesca, visited the hospice to meet some of the children and their families, helping to spread smiles with singing, music and bubbles. It was a very special day and we are looking forward to many more in the future.” 

To find out more about Spread a Smile’s work in NHS hospitals and hospices across the country, please click here.