News

We recently announced our ambition to become a national charity and a leading voice in hospital entertainment by 2024.  Investing in our team plays a critical part in achieving our goals and, this month we are delighted to welcome three new team members.  Jasmin Minjoot (pictured) has been appointed Operations Manager heading up the services team as we begin to expand our networks outside of London and Ellie Walker and Laura Messin join as Visit Managers, responsible for family liaison, managing the increasing demand for our virtual bedside visits, and once we are back in hospitals, our scheduled entertainer visits.   All three have extensive knowledge of the charity and experience of working with families as, for the past few years, all three have been valuable members of our entertainment team and otherwise known as Fairy Jasmin, Fairy Ellie and Fairy Laura.   As such, when required, they will also continue to entertain seriously ill and hospitalised children and teenagers.

We asked Jasmin about her new role…

What are you excited about in your new role?

“I’m super excited to be more involved with the ‘behind the scenes’, I have so many ideas that I just can’t wait to get out! Being part of the Spread a Smile team is such a dream. As an entertainer I’ve seen first hand the reactions and impact of what we do and now, in this new role, it enables me to help keep us moving towards new and exciting goals.”

What do you love about Spread a Smile?

“The smiles! Honestly, the amount of smiles that we create is just incredible! I think everyone knows that warm, fuzzy feeling of true happiness and to be able to create that feeling through our entertainers and events is truly special. Who doesn’t love to smile?!”

Are you still Fairy Jasmin?

“Well, a fairy can be in disguise as Operations Manager, but there’s no way anyone could take away my wings! I have always loved performing, from when I went to my very first dance class as a tiny tot. I remember watching a show when I was younger and how happy it made me, and ever since then that’s what I wanted to do, to make people feel that happiness. When I sing, I love to get into character and sometimes that means being very silly and I just love the giggles and smiles that come from it. It’s amazing that I can still be on hand for entertaining within this new role.”

Thank you, as always, to the incredible fundraisers who go over and above to raise money and help us spread more smiles to seriously ill and hospitalised children under the care of our NHS partner hospitals.

As always, we’ve been blown away by your incredible fundraising support and the levels you will go to spread more smiles.  This month’s daredevil award definitely goes to Indre Tumenaite from our partners, Metcalfe’s, who took to the skies for a sponsored wing walk.  Click Wingwalking 4 to see Indre in the skies.  Our friends at  ICBC Standard Bank held a virtual painting class for charity raising £470.  And, a team from Hain Daniels together rode 874 miles (the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats) for Spread a Smile. If you have a fundraising idea of your own we would love to hear from you.

Alternatively, join Team Smile in one of our challenge events this year – there’s still plenty of time to train.

Indre from Metcalfe’s took part in a sponsored wing walk for Spread a Smile!

We’re delighted to announce that Opticore IT has officially partnered with Spread a Smile to help us bring smiles and joy to seriously ill and hospitalised children.

Neil Taylor, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Opticore (pictured at our 2020 Golf Day), said, “Everyone at Opticore is honoured to partner with Spread a Smile. It is an amazing charity offering children in hospital much needed distraction. Everyone at Opticore cannot wait to help add a little more magic to these children and young people.” 

Opticore IT has big plans for the year ahead including participation and sponsorship of our golf day in October, a gaming marathon and volunteering plus Talent Hunter, Simon Chandler has joined Team Smile in the virtual London Marathon.

Thank you Opticore IT, we’re looking forward to working with the team.

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.

Hartley’s, the UK’s no. 1 jelly brand, is proud to announce its partnership with the amazing charity, Spread a Smile. The charity brings joy and laughter to seriously ill and hospitalised children and their families during intensive treatment and extended hospital stays.  Every year they spread smiles to thousands of children and teenagers under the care of their NHS hospital partners through entertainer visits, outings & events & art initiatives.

The two year partnership will help increase awareness of Spread a Smile, raise money to ensure their amazing work can continue, and ultimately brighten the lives of even more seriously ill children and their families throughout the UK. With spreading smiles being at the heart of everything both brands do, the link up felt like the perfect fit.

The first look at the partnership can be seen across Hartley’s jelly pots, which are in supermarkets now and for the next three months. The multipacks feature two images of children enjoying a Spread a Smile entertainer visit, one from a fairy and the other a magician and the smiles on their faces say it all*.

On top of this, Hartley’s have committed to donate a minimum of £50,000 to the charity through the sale of these marked packs but have a desire to raise even more! This donation will enable Spread a Smile to support more seriously ill and hospitalised children through its growing network of NHS hospital partners throughout the UK.

In celebration of the launch, Hartley’s and Spread a Smile are kicking off with  ‘Jelly Week’ across the first week of May. This week will be full of jelly related activities for the children in hospital to enjoy, such as jelly art, a jelly escape room and jelly play (all delivered virtually) as well as a delivery of more than 1,000 strawberry balloons and jelly pots – one for every child across the charity’s hospital partners.

David Atkinson, Managing Director at Hartley’s says: “The partnership between Hartley’s and Spread a Smile is something that we are really proud of as a business. It’s brilliant that Hartley’s can use its national presence to take the “Spread a Smile” charity into hundreds of stores and millions of households. All to help highlight the fantastic work that is done by “Spread a Smile” in our nation’s hospitals. Hartley’s Jelly has always been about bringing a bit of wobbly fun, it is wonderful that we can help light up some faces with smiles for those in hospital who need it most. We look forward to growing both our corporate and brand partnerships over time.”

Lucy Jackson, CEO of Spread a Smile responded, “We are more than delighted to be partnering with Hartley’s. It is such a brilliant brand fit all round and I know together, we will be able to spread many more smiles to seriously ill and hospitalised children. Both the awareness and the funds this collaboration will bring to Spread a Smile will be transformative to our organisation and we are incredibly grateful for this support and this opportunity.”

Look out for our marked packs that come in 4 different varieties, Strawberry, Raspberry, Strawberry No Added Sugar and Raspberry No Added Sugar.

Pictures from Jelly Week:

Spread a Smile, the children’s hospital entertainment charity, is thrilled to announce that, thanks to its partners, Bregal Milestone, it will be further supporting seriously ill and hospitalised children through the provision of digital devices.  More than 40 iPads have been distributed to play specialist teams across the charity’s network of hospital partners which will be used to distract children during extended hospital stays and treatment and more significantly during lockdown, increase their connectivity with family and friends.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive of Spread a Smile, said, “We’re so grateful to everyone at Bregal Milestone for their commitment to increasing digital access for hospitalised children, helping to break down the digital divide and spreading smiles.  This last year has highlighted just how important it is to the wellbeing of children isolating in hospital to maintain their connection with friends and family at home.  Sadly, so many children do not have access to their own devices.  These iPads will enable them to maintain those connections as well as enjoy a host of educational apps and games plus Spread a Smile’s virtual entertainer visits and Smile TV.”

The iPads come at a critical time.  Hospital lockdown restrictions will continue for the foreseeable future meaning communal play spaces remain closed, children are confined to their beds and restricted to only one parent visitor.  Over the last year Spread a Smile has transformed its service delivery to ensure it could continue to support children by providing a range of digital entertainment and play options including virtual one to one entertainer visits, group sessions, activity days, after school clubs and Smile TV – an entertainment channel filled with videos and clips from our entertainers and famous faces.

Jan Bruennler, Philippe Lautenberg and Cyrus Shey, Managing Partners at Bregal Milestone, said, “The entire team at Bregal Milestone is pleased to have partnered with Spread a Smile and IT providers, Arkphire to give children in hospital these new tablets during Covid-19. In these times of strict isolation, we hope these tablets will allow children in hospital to stay connected to their loved ones, to enjoy Spread a Smile’s entertainment and to feel much love and companionship from friends, family and Spread a Smile.”

Hayley Gilburt, Senior Play Specialist at St George’s Hospital, said, “We’re so happy with our brand new iPads from Spread a Smile. They arrived setup with lots of games for our patients to play. This is so helpful when distracting patients during painful and scary procedures. They also provide a great way for our patients to access all sorts of virtual entertainment and activities put on by Spread a Smile. We have been enjoying some fantastic magic shows, balloon modelling, art sessions and much more with them.” 

The iPads are all on a managed system which means they are come preloaded with age-appropriate games, educational and communications apps and allows the charity to upload new games and apps to meet with growing demand.  They have been delivered along with branded shockproof cases to GOSH, UCLH, St Mary’s Hospital, St George’s Hospital, The Royal Brompton, Evelina Children’s Hospital, Kings College Hospital, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Southampton Hospital.

At a time when accessing digital services couldn’t be more important, we are delighted to be working with the Good Things Foundation and BBC Children in Need on the Everyone Connected project – an initiative that aims to tackle digital exclusion and increase digital access to disadvantaged families throughout the UK.

Spread a Smile was allocated 50 tablets (each with six months free wifi access) which we have given to families of seriously ill and hospitalised children who did not have their own devices.  Our involvement with the project and its impact were recently highlighted by Children in Need.

All tablets have now been allocated to families with thanks to our NHS Hospital Partners.

Please Click HERE to watch Lucy Jackson’s interview regarding the Everyone Connected initiative

For further details on how Children in Need is tackling ditial exclusion please Click Here

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.”

How do you unite colleagues working in London and New York?  You make them walk/run the distance in between, all 3,459 miles!

We are thrilled to be working with the team at specialist recruitment company, TritonExec on their #TEmilesintosmiles challenge this April with an ambitious target of £10,000.

Ben Graham, Partner at TritonExec said, “We are honoured that Spread a Smile is our affiliated charity. The work they do is so inspiring and means so much to many seriously ill children and their families. Like TritonExec, Spread a Smile is boutique – meaning it may not be as well known as other larger charities and we want to do all we can to help promote their incredible dedication so more people are aware of how amazing they are as well as do everything in our power to raise as much money for them as possible.”

A big thank you to their teams on both sides of the Atlantic for not only taking on such a colossal challenge but also for nominated us as their charity partner of the year.

We look forward to working with such an energic and positive team.

To read more about TritonExec’s fundraising challenge please CLICK HERE