News

Choir Appearing on BBC Children in Need

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We’re so excited that the Spread a Smile Choir will be appearing on the BBC Children in Need live show as part of the Children in Need Choir.

The Spread a Smile Choir was established earlier this year and is made up of patients, their siblings and friends, who all gather together to sing. They are led by Spread a Smile’s singer extraordinaire, Collette Spinner. They delivered their amazing debut public performance in May at the Spread a Smile Fundraising Dinner and this will be their second public performance.

The Choir has become such a positive force for so many of the children, with them forming true friendships at their rehearsals. Choir members have said:

“The Choir means everything to me and I like singing with the Choir.”

“I love meeting new friends and being able to sing with them.”

“The Choir means happiness to me.”

Parents have said:

“The Choir gives Lucy something to look forward to apart from a life full of hospital and school and not a lot more! She also meets other kids who have a similar life to hers. It also brings her joy and laughter and time together with friends brought together through  similar circumstances and the joy of singing. Thank you so much Spread a Smile!”

“The Spread a Smile choir has meant so much to the girls as it allows them to sing their little hearts out with very special friends that we have come to know on Keeva’s journey. It inspires them to forget the hardship and look forward to a bright future of singing and smiling. They love every moment and enjoy all the amazing sessions that they have.”

BBC Children in Need recently awarded Spread a Smile with a new three year grant, enabling us to visit and entertain even more children and teenagers who are seriously and terminally ill in hospital. We are so grateful to BBC Children in Need for their ongoing support.

We can’t wait to see the Choir on BBC Children in Need’s Live Appeal Show on BBC1 on Friday 15th November from 7.30pm. Good luck to the wonderful Choir!

Gift Drive 2019

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As the festive period approaches, it always means one thing at Spread a Smile HQ – the best party in town!  And this year WE NEED YOUR HELP to make it an extra special and memorable day for the children and families we meet on our hospital visits.

On Sunday 24th November, we are honoured to host over 300 seriously ill children and their family members at our Smile Party in London. We are busy planning the perfect party and we want to send each and every child home with their very own festive gift.

We’re asking for donations of as many gifts as possible. All we ask is that they are new and that they arrive unwrapped and are selected from the ideas listed below and delivered to us at Spread a Smile HQ (51 Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8AN) by TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER.

Thank you so much for any support that you can give! 

Metcalfe’s ®

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We’re so delighted that Metcalfe’s® has announced that Spread a Smile will be their charity partner for the next two years. Metcalfe’s® will donate a proportion of every sale of its classic Sea Salt flavour Charity Popcorn and Variety multipacks to the charity, with a total donation target of at least £30,000.

Metcalfe’s® is the creator of popcorn and other popular snacks and was the first to market the sweet and salt flavour mix.

Lucy Jackson, CEO of Spread a Smile, said, “Metcalfe’s® support will enable us to spread smiles to seriously ill children and teenagers in hospital at a time when they and their families need it the most. We are incredibly grateful for their support and are looking forward to working together in 2020 and beyond. We can’t wait to see the smiles that this partnership will produce.”

Sarah Henden, Brand Manager at Metcalfe’s® said, “We’re delighted to announce Spread a Smile as our charity partner for the next few years. Over the last seven years, the charity has done outstanding work helping over 7,000 children each year and we’re proud to be supporting this fantastic cause.”

Trinny Spreads Smiles at UCLH

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The wonderful Trinny Woodall and her team of make up artists from Trinny London recently joined us at University College Hospital to makeover teenagers and their mums on the teenage wards there.

Trinny London has been supporting Spread a Smile with their FreshFlush LIP2CHEEKS Mama and Katja colours by generously donating 10% of sales of both to Spread a Smile.

Trinny volunteered to come to UCLH with us to spread smiles to teenagers and their parents. For children, teenagers and their families, life in hospital is all-consuming and personal care definitely takes a back seat. Trinny so generously spent copious amounts of time chatting to all the teenagers and mums that she saw and spread so many smiles with her makeovers, warmth, fun and kindness. One mum emotionally told us, “You have created something so powerful today. When your child is ill, as a mum the last person you think about is yourself. This has been the most amazing day and I’m so grateful.”

Huge thanks to fabulous Trinny and her wonderful Trinny London team for helping to spread countless smiles.

Spreading Smiles with Lola’s

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We’re celebrating our partnership with Lola’s Cupcakes, who have been a wonderful supporter to Spread a Smile for the last six years. 

Lola’s generously support our family events, where we take children, teenagers and their families to West End shows or concerts, by supplying delicious cupcakes for our guests to enjoy at our pre-show party. As one mum said to us recently, “it wouldn’t be a Spread a Smile party without Lola’s cupcakes”. For the last six years, Lola’s have also attended our winter party where they have run cupcake decorating workshops for the children. 

They have also found other innovative ways to support us including donating proceeds from water they sold over the July heatwave, Lola’s Bakery, in West Hampstead, celebrated their second birthday by donating 50p from every cake slice and cupcake sold to Spread a Smile over their birthday weekend and they recently supported a cake decorating workshop with us and WeWork through their new Create a Cake concept. 

Asher Budwig, Managing Director at Lola’s said: “We are proud to support such an amazing charity, that seeks to brighten the days of those that they visit. Here’s to another 6 years supporting Spread a Smile!”

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive of Spread a Smile said ,”We are so grateful for the generous ongoing support from Lola’s. They consistently go above and beyond with ideas for how to support us and have helped us to spread countless smiles over the years.”

New Head of Art

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Marina Constantinou, our incredibly talented face painter, radiotherapy mask painter and Accounts Manager, was included in this year’s Happy List by The Independent. Marina was recognised for her work painting radiotherapy masks – making the process far less intimidating for children undergoing treatment by decorating their masks in designs that they choose. Designs have included football teams, Sylvanian Families, Minions and lots more. See more about the Happy List here.

We’re excited to announce that towards the end of the year, Marina will be moving roles from Accounts Manager to become Spread a Smile’s first ever Head of Art. Marina will be rolling out her talent in hospitals, with regular face painting visits as well as special 1-2-1 and group art workshops. She will also be a regular at Spread a Smile events. Marina will still be painting radiotherapy masks, and the request for bespoke masks is expected to increase.

Watch this space for regular updates about Marina’s art!

Laura Joins as Head of Operations

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We’re absolutely delighted to have welcomed Laura Walter to the Spread a Smile team in our newly created role of Head of Operations. Laura joins us from University College Hospital (UCLH) where she was a play specialist in the radiotherapy department – and Laura had met many of our Spread a Smile families already. Laura has also recently completed a masters degree in Child Life and Paediatric Psychosocial Care and has a postgraduate diploma in Childhood Bereavement.

Laura’s role at UCLH involved helping children, young people and their families to feel safe and comfortable in the radiotherapy environment and help them understand and cope with their daily treatment. Laura says, “I was very fortunate to be able to build long-term relationships with patients and their families and to bring fun and recreation into the hospital environment as much as possible.”

Laura first met the Spread a Smile team in 2013, soon after the charity was founded. Laura says, “I instantly saw the incredible benefits for the patients and families I was  working with in radiotherapy. They helped me out so much by bringing entertainers and therapy dogs to visit children and young people during our busy clinic days, where patients can be waiting for very long periods of time and my colleague and I would be very busy working with new patients. Many of my patients and their families also got to benefit from the amazing VIP days out. It was such a treat to be able to offer these experiences to patients as it gave them a real lift, and, as the whole family was included, it allowed them to spend quality time together, which was essential during such a difficult time.

“It has been such a privilege to have worked so closely with Spread a Smile since the beginning and it seemed like the perfect fit to join the team when the opportunity arose. It’s a real honour to be given this exciting opportunity. Everyone at Spread a Smile is extremely passionate and dedicated to improving the experience for children and young people facing illness and hospitalisation, and this is evident in everything the charity does. Spread a Smile values professionalism, but still manages to keep that personal touch for parents, families and hospital staff, which is so important, especially as the charity grows and develops. I’ll be leading on service delivery within the NHS. I’ll be looking at how we currently deliver our service and how we can expand and improve in our existing hospitals, as well as help to expand into new hospitals so we can support even more children, young people and families within the greater London area. I’ll also be helping to implement new projects and initiatives and be a part of a research study that will be conducted to measure the impact we’re having on our service users.

“I’m currently working on building relationships with additional London hospitals with a view to sending our entertainers there in the future. I’d also like to develop a bespoke individual referrals pathway to support patients and families who could benefit from one-on-one visits in hospital. For example, patients receiving palliative care or patients who have been in hospital for long periods of time and really need a pick-me-up! Although we already do a little bit of this, I would really like to increase this service as I’ve seen first-hand the benefits this can have for patients.”

Joubi x Spread a Smile

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Joubi, the boutique jewellery brand, has collaborated with us to create a gorgeous necklace featuring a colourful smiley face motif. The necklace is available in either rose gold, yellow gold or white rhodium plating. All profits from the sale of the necklace will be generously donated to Spread a Smile.

The necklace can be purchased from www.joubi.com for £49.99. Our first batch sold out in record time but they will be restocked soon. Joanna Bourne, Joubi founder, said, “I was introduced to Spread a Smile and was blown away by the incredible work of the charity and the sense of fun they bring to children and teenagers who are faced with long hospital stays. I created the necklace as a way of encapsulating the essence of the charity at the same time as being able to support them by spreading more smiles.” Lucy Jackson, our Chief Executive said, “We are so grateful to Joanna for creating something so wonderful to help us spread more smiles. The necklace is a fabulous emblem of the charity and will make a perfect gift for daughters, mums, sisters, friends and more!”

Larry King Hairdressing at GOSH

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In July, Bobby, Katie, Katie and Elle from top London hair salon, Larry King, spent a day with us at Great Ormond Street Hospital. We wanted to give parents of the children we visit the chance to have their hair cut and styled as opportunities like this are scarce for parents of sick kids. The team visited lots of wards to offer the hair styling service, and styled 12 mums and dads during the day.

Josephine Segal, Spread a Smile’s co founder, accompanied the Larry King team on the day. She said, “It was wonderful to be able to give such deserving parents some time for themselves. It was truly great to be able to offer them just 20 minutes for their own self-care. One of the mums who we saw said that she almost forget she was still in hospital while she was having her hair cut, which truly meant the world to us.”

Bobby Collier, Larry King stylist, said, “We were all so pleased to be able to offer our time and skills to the parents that we saw at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Finding time for a haircut can be hard for anyone, but we were so moved hearing about the parents who don’t leave the hospital whilst their children are receiving treatment, some of whom had been there for months already. It was a very rewarding day and we’re looking forward to coming back for another visit.”

We even received a special thank you from play team at GOSH:

We will be arranging future visits with the Larry King team.

 

Joseph and the Amazing Theatre Trip

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On 3 July we took a group of 50 to see the brand new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium.

Our guests were treated to a pre-show party which included lunch and entertainment from our magicians, face painters and fairies. They then enjoyed the wonderful production of the show, with the all star cast including Jason Donovan as Pharoah and Sheridan Smith as the narrator.

After the show, we had a surprise meet and greet with the cast in the theatre.

One of our guests said, “It’s lovely to hear Remy so happy on a morning and that’s because of the lovely Spread a Smile team arranging such a super day out yesterday to the theatre for us as a family. We thoroughly had a great time and never thought for a minute that the cast were coming out…Just brilliant.”

 

With thanks to Encore Tickets, the London Palladium and Renata Boruch for photos.