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Our Summer Party was a night filled with entertainment and laughter, but also some very moving stories from the special children and teenagers we visit in hospital and their families.

Varun, a 13-year-old that we visited at UCLH and GOSH, kicked off proceedings by telling us about his battle with cancer and how Spread a Smile made a difference to his time in hospital by entertaining him and taking him out on special trips to the theatre, an acting workshop and a concert. He said he found his time in hospital “very isolating”: “You feel alone and bored… wishing you had something to take your mind off your illness. Thank goodness for the Spread a Smile team who were there to help me through times like these. Without Spread a Smile my journey would have been a lot more difficult to endure.”

Co-founder Josephine Segal explained why she and Vanessa Crocker started the charity in 2013 after seeing the positive impact a magician’s visit had on her then 9-year-old nephew, Aaron, when he was treated for cancer in Great Ormond Street Hospital. She went on to describe the charity’s journey over the last four years, from small beginnings visiting GOSH once a month, to now entertaining over 3,500 children a year in four London hospitals on 12 visits every month. She introduced the now 14-year-old Aaron, the inspiration for Spread a Smile, who had us rocking in our seats as he performed the Bill Withers’ hit Lovely Day with his school friends and bandmates Alon and Lior.

Other entertainment came in the form of the internationally-acclaimed opera singer Deborah Myers who sang Somewhere from West Side Story. Britain’s Got Talent Magician Jamie Raven explained how honoured he felt on being asked to become Spread a Smile’s Patron. He then treated us to a special magic show, delivered with his distinctive flair and comic timing. Spread a Smile magicians kept us entertained throughout the evening, giving us a taste of the magic (literal and metaphorical) that they create for the courageous children and teenagers we visit in hospital. Magicians Ian Manly, Paul Megram, Daniel Reed and Martin Rees performed close-up magic, Judge wowed us with his spontaneous poems and singer Collette Spinner delighted us with several numbers during the reception.

Paul Sexton, Managing Director of Lawsons, spoke of how he had observed Spread a Smile’s effect first-hand and how that had led the firm to support Spread a Smile. He appealed to all our guests to dig deep so we can continue sprinkling that magic in hospitals: “The slowest clock on the planet is a hospital clock. The biggest thing you can do for anybody that is ill is make them smile and create distractions which help control pain. These guys do it in spades. I have to say I have never ever witnessed something as special as the Spread a Smile team. They are truly truly amazing at what they do.”

Spread a Smile Co-founder Vanessa Crocker followed by talking about our vision for the future of the charity. She spoke of how Spread a Smile’s “work is in demand and we have now been asked by each of the hospitals [we visit] to increase the frequency of our visits… and even start working in a fifth paediatric hospital from early 2018.” She appealed to our guests to give generously and help us realise our dream of helping more children and teenagers over the coming months and years.

Vanessa then introduced Parker Moss, father to 9-year-old Vanessa who suffers from neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in the nerve tissue and mainly affects babies and young children. Parker spoke movingly of Vanessa’s long illness and how Spread a Smile entertainers have made a huge difference to his daughter during her treatment at GOSH and UCLH, making her feel at those times, despite her illness, “like the luckiest girl in the world”. He said, “It’s more than just a smile… it’s about feeling lucky and being loved… it’s a really truly important thing that Spread a Smile do”.

The night was rounded off by a film that followed members of the Spread a Smile team on hospital visits, demonstrating the charity’s transformational work and hearing testimony from the children and teenagers, their parents and the NHS staff we work with. By the end of the video there was barely a dry eye in the room.

Thanks to Varun Mahatme, Aaron Maurice, Alon Issler, Lior Solomons-Wise, Parker Moss and Paul Sexton for taking part; and to Food Story, Just Seventy, Light Fantastic, Deborah Myers, Jamie Raven, The London Marriott Regents Park, and all our amazing entertainers and volunteers for their hard work making the evening a great success.

On Tuesday 11th April we celebrated our 4th Birthday. Our huggable mascot Buddy Bear popped in to see us and even brought us a delicious cake.

Four years ago today our co-founders Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker took a team of entertainers into Great Ormond Street Hospital for our very first visit. We visited four wards; haematology and oncology, the cardiac unit and a ward which treats children with renal- related conditions. The entertainers on that first visit included Spread a Smile regulars Fairy Felicity and Adam Ant.

Fairy Felicity said: “It’s been amazing watching the charity grow and develop from such humble beginnings, initially visiting only four GOSH wards once a month in the early days, and now entertaining in four hospitals several times a month with such a great team of talented performers.

“It’s been an absolute privilege visiting the kids over the last four years. Every visit gives me pause for thought, as we meet some very brave children in distressing circumstances. However, knowing that we have gone some way to alleviate their distress that day gives me a real sense of fulfilment. To make a child laugh, to help them forget for a moment that they are in a hospital or in pain, is a real joy.”

During the last four years, Vanessa and Josephine have led the growth of the charity, ensuring that we have always been able to serve our current partner hospitals to the best of our abilities before expanding into new ones. In this way, the hospitals know we are always there to help and the children have learnt to look forward to our visits as a highlight to their week. Over the years, we have formed some close bonds with the children and their families, supporting them through their difficult journeys.

Natasha Luck, Play Specialist at The Royal London Hospital, said: “I have absolutely loved every minute of working with Spread a Smile and all of their entertainers. The difference they make for both the patients and their families is incredible. The generosity they have shown The Royal London Hospital is overwhelming: I know I never have to hesitate to ask them if I need any help or support.”

Since April 2013, we have expanded our visits in GOSH, now visiting nine wards twice a month, as well as visits to University College Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, and since the start of this year, St Mary’s, Paddington. Vanessa and Josephine’s tireless commitment to the children and teenagers we visit has gained recognition from Number 10. In December 2016, Prime Minister Theresa May honoured them with a Points of Light Award, which recognises outstanding individual volunteers, people who are making a change in their community and inspiring others.

On the charity’s fourth anniversary, Vanessa said: “It’s incredible to see how Spread a Smile has grown. We are so lucky that with the help of our generous donors and supporters we are now able to visit over 3,000 children and teenagers a year. With continued support, we are looking to expand to make more monthly visits and add new hospitals to our list, so we can reach even more children and teenagers. Thank you to our wonderful supporters who make it all possible and have helped us reach our fourth birthday!”

In 2016 we launched a competition in partnership with children’s newspaper, First News, to design a new mascot to take into hospitals. The winning design, Buddy, was created by 11-year-old Caris Baughan from Warwickshire.

After many months of painstaking planning and development, the expert team at Rainbow Productions, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of mascots, who have created costumes for well-known characters such as Peppa Pig and Pingu, crafted Caris’ design into a huggable reality!

Buddy Bear, who proudly made a debut at our Glitter & Glow party in December 2016, has been a big hit with the children we meet in hospital.

We are very grateful to Lawsons who generously donated the money to have Buddy created.

We work in six London hospitals: Great Ormond Street, University College Hospital, the Royal London, the Evalina, St Mary’s and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. We have established strong working relationships with our hospital partners so we can keep sending in our teams of entertainers regularly.

“Spread a Smile have been sending entertainers into GOSH for four years and they are one of the more consistent and quality-driven charities we regularly rely on. The team have built an incredible reputation for themselves in a relatively short space of time. The way they operate is an exemplar to other voluntary organisations we work with. They are professional and reliable and an important part of the Volunteer Services team at GOSH. I would arrange a Spread a Smile visit for every day of the week if I could and we are currently looking into how we can expand their work into even more wards at GOSH.”
Jamie Wilcox, Head of Volunteer Services, GOSH

“Spread a Smile has made a huge difference to the experience of paediatric and adolescent patients at University College Hospital. The entertainers are talented and clearly believe in what they are doing. Not only do they put the patients and families at ease, they engage with the children and young people in a fun, exciting way that is appropriate to their age and developmental level. They really make each individual child and young person feel special. When Spread a Smile are with us, the children are visibly more relaxed and comfortable in the hospital environment.”
Laura Walter, Senior Radiotherapy Play Specialist, UCLH

“It is sometimes difficult for us to get the children to accept the procedure they need; with Spread a Smile’s help and support the children increasingly become more compliant, which helps me and my colleagues tremendously. They don’t even notice they’ve had their procedure or injection as they’re so interested in Spread a Smile’s activity!”
Natasha Luck, Play Specialist, The Royal London Hospital

“Spread a Smile is a very special charity. They value and appreciate the clinical work that is undertaken and work collaboratively with the ward and hospital staff, this strengthens their success. The team are professional and work closely with us to ensure all members of the team have good knowledge to work in such specialised clinical environments. I have seen children amazed at the magician doing a card trick, children excitedly waiting for a visit from the magical fairy or having their face painted and the nurses speechless from their hard work described in a poem. Spread a Smile is able to put a smile on a child’s face or make them laugh in the most difficult of situations.”
Eleanor Tyrrell, Matron, GOSH

“It is wonderful to have Spread a Smile’s entertainers in the St Mary’s paediatric departments, because they do exactly what the name implies – they take the patients’ minds off why they are there, helping to relax them and to entertain them at exactly the right time. The entertainers bring joy and amusement to our patients from the very youngest to the adolescents. The families also benefit from seeing their children having a moment of pleasure away from their condition and their treatment. Cassie the pet therapy dog has done wonders with the children including those who were previously a little ‘dog-phobic’, and the fairies, magicians, singers and storytellers pitch their work perfectly for each child. It is a pleasure to work with such a well-organised and enthusiastic charity.”
IAN LUSH – Chief Executive of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity

If you would like to speak to a member of our team about Spread a Smile visiting your hospital, please contact Vanessa on 020 7482 5191 or vanessa@spreadasmile.org.

Our entertainers form the heart of Spread a Smile. We are very lucky to have an incredible team of entertainers, who have come to us based on personal recommendations and have had extensive professional experience in the entertainment industry. We have a range of magicians, fairies, singers, face painters and a spontaneous poet to ensure that every age group from newborns to eighteen-year-olds and every taste can be catered for.

Our entertainers tell us that joining Spread a Smile has been a life-changing experience. Many of them have been with us since the charity was established.

Here’s what some of them had to say about working with Spread a Smile:

“I have been so fortunate to have travelled the world, to do and see things that I would never have dreamed of growing up. I have met Royalty, stood on stage in front of sell-out theatres in the West End, and performed live on television in front of 15 million people. But I promise you, all of it means absolutely nothing, when compared to the smile on the face of a child, or a glint in their eye, when you can take them away from everything, even just for a few seconds, into a pain-free world of make believe where absolutely anything is possible. Of everything I have been lucky enough to achieve in my professional life, working with, and subsequently being asked to become a patron for Spread a Smile is at the very top of the list.” Jamie

“I love working with Spread a Smile because the organisation is brilliantly run, well organised and totally focused on their goal to provide moments of joy and happiness for kids and teenagers in hospitals. I am privileged to work with a talented team of entertainers where ego is always left at the door and as a team we try our best to make as many people happy as we can within the limited time we have to do it. Whilst we cannot ease pain or fix their condition, we can, for a few minutes at least, allow them to forget why they are in hospital and give them a chance to react and behave like any other child. We give them a chance to enjoy the feelings of fun and laughter the other kids take for granted. Our visits are a highlight of the children’s day and sometimes they really look forward to our visits. Giving a child a sense of excitement and hope is a great way to help them mentally if not physically. Spread a Smile has become a very important charity to be aligned with. It is an honour and privilege to represent them.” Nick

“Working for Spread a Smile is without question one of the most rewarding things I do. Each child I meet in hospital is a star. They have such a positive outlook on life and although it is me who dresses like a superhero; they are my heroes. Seeing them laugh and smile and forget their surroundings for just a small amount of time is the greatest gift I can give.” Dov

“To make a child laugh, to help them forget for a moment that they are in a hospital or in pain, is a real joy. One father told me the doctors were able to reduce his daughter’s morphine drip after I had visited – such a humbling thing to hear, and a sign of how important Spread a Smile’s work is.” Felicity

Run a Mile, Spread a Smile

Team Spread a Smile has 18 amazing runners running in the Royal Parks Half Marathonon Sunday 8 October 2017. They will be helping us spread smiles and make a huge difference to the lives of seriously ill children and teenagers.

This stunning central London half marathon across a 13.1 mile route, takes in the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens.

Thank you for your support…we can make a difference together!

Vanessa was 4 years old when she was first diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in the nerve tissue and mainly affects babies and young children. She was treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and her treatment required her to be in hospital for long periods of time. We first met Vanessa four years ago not long after she started treatment on Lion Ward. She was low at the time and was missing her two sisters, Ruby and Zoe. She loved the Spread a Smile visits as they helped her take her mind off her treatment.

Vanessa’s dad, Parker, told us about the impact our entertainers’ visits had on Vanessa: “Spread a Smile’s volunteers were one of the only things that could raise a smile in our daughter during her chemotherapy. Their fairies are angels of kindness, and their magicians conjure away the pain with every visit. It’s hard to explain how slowly time passes on a children’s oncology ward, but Spread a Smile silenced the ticking of the clock, and remained at our daughter’s side to sprinkle a little fairy dust and make her feel for a few moments like the luckiest girl in the world.”

Vanessa loves Les Miserables and we were able to organise a visit for Vanessa, her mum, dad, and sisters to watch Les Mis and even meet and sing with the cast after the show. Vanessa sent us a message after the show: “I loved all the songs and I think they are all great singers. The best bit was when they sung ‘One Day More’. The show was really good. I loved it! Thank you Josephine and Vanessa.” Her dad also wrote, “Thank you to this wonderful charity, which works tirelessly to spread a smile to children.”

Vanessa’s mum, Anna, summed up Spread a Smile’s work: “A child still wants to play, still wants to smile and still wants to spend their days laughing despite being very sick… Probably the most valuable type of help at that time in our lives was when the extraordinary team from Spread a Smile came into the hospital and just made a difference at that moment and let my daughter be a child again. That for me as a mother is the most precious gift my daughter could have during a very very tough time.”

After four years of painful treatment, Vanessa is still battling this awful disease. Spread a Smile has loved helping her and her family have moments of respite and joy during this distressing time and helping them create uplifting memories to sustain them in the future.

PAT pets can come in all shapes and sizes, but our two Spread a Smile pets, Cassie and Oscar, are both cuddly dogs.

Cassie, with her owner Talia, has been visiting patients at UCLH, the Royal London and St Mary’s, since 2015 and has recently started visiting GOSH. Oscar, with his owner, Carolyn, has been visiting UCLH since early 2017.

The Pets as Therapy (PAT) charity has given the dogs accreditation by assessing each of them for suitability for hospital visits. They check the pet is sociable and friendly, that it is calm and gentle when being stroked or handled, and isn’t overly fearful of new and unexpected stimuli.

Cassie & Talia

Cassie is a six-year-old Cavapoo – half Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and half Miniature Poodle.

Talia, Cassie’s owner, said about the visits, “People of all ages seem to gravitate to Cassie, from the infants and toddlers who love to touch her fluffy coat, and point and laugh when she rings the bell, to teenagers who don’t feel like a chat, but would rather stroke and cuddle up to a warm and gentle dog, to the doctors and staff who get to have a short and uplifting break from their stressful jobs.

“Cassie constantly has a wagging tail and loves all the fussing and attention. She just seems to know whether to be silly and make the children laugh, or to be calm and cuddly when that’s what’s needed.”

“Volunteering for Spread a Smile is the most re­warding and incredible experience I have had the pleasure of taking part in.”

“I’m so proud of my little pup for what she does during a hospital visit. Even though it’s only a small difference, it seems to be a lasting one to the children and family’s day.”

Oscar & Carolyn

Oscar is a five and a half year-old Tibetan Terrier.

Carolyn, Oscar’s owner, said “I have been volunteering at Spread a Smile for the past two years and am constantly humbled by the amazing difference our entertainers make to so many children and their families, in particular Cassie our other gorgeous PAT dog. Knowing how much my dog Oscar loves human company, I was inspired to see whether he would be able to follow in Cassie’s paw prints. Little did I know what an impact it would have on both our lives.

“From the second we arrive on the ward at UCLH there is excitement and a friendly welcome for Oscar from both the families and the staff. In fact quite often the staff are just as pleased to see him as the children and come to find him for a stroke and a cuddle!

“A lot of children are missing their own family pets whilst in hospital so seeing Oscar really makes them smile. Often they are happy to chat to us both, even if they have been quite subdued or unhappy before we arrive. I can see how this affects not only the child, but also their parents and grandparents. I remember on my very first visit we saw a little boy who was so excited to see Oscar because he was missing his own dog. I put Oscar on the boy’s bed while he stroked him, and he chatted away non-stop the whole time we were there. I found out later that he hadn’t spoken for two or three days before Oscar had walked through his door.

“Oscar seems to really enjoy his visits. He loves getting attention from everyone and his tail is always wagging. As soon as he sees a child, he immediately lies down on the floor waiting for a stroke and if he’s really lucky a tummy tickle or even a cuddle! It’s quite tiring for him, so after a hard morning’s work, he comes home, curls up in his bed and snores all afternoon!

Seven year old Ryan loves Cassie and Oscar’s visits. He said: “The dogs are lovely, soft and friendly. I like making them happy, then they wag their tail and that makes me happy. I love it when they lie on my hospital bed and I love Cassie’s tricks. My favourite trick is when she rings a bell with her paw. They brighten my day and make me smile seeing them. The visits are important as they make lots of people happy.”

Jessica was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when she was 5 years old. In the early days she was struggling with everything that had changed in her life as a result as her diagnosis. She was receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, but at the beginning she felt anxious and wasn’t confident around the hospital and the staff. Spread a Smile helped her feel more comfortable; her gran Louise said, “When Spread a Smile’s fabulous entertainers came in, she would start off smiling and end up roaring with laughter. Although she loves all the entertainers, Fairy Felicity is undoubtedly her favourite.”

Jess has two younger siblings, Taylor and Mia, who have also been affected by their sister’s illness. We are aware that siblings not only find it distressing seeing their sister or brother suffering, but also the time-consuming pressures of treatment can often mean some siblings feel ignored. Spread a Smile try to support Taylor and Mia too during this difficult time and have included them on VIP outings to the theatre and to our annual party. Louise said, “This has ensured Taylor and Mia do not feel forgotten or neglected; they always feel so special. They have been able to travel Jess’ journey with her, and they will always have the memories of doing things together. For this we will always be
grateful to Spread a Smile.”

Jess has been receiving treatment for three years now and the fight against cancer has been gruelling. During this challenging time, Spread a Smile visited her often. Her gran said, “Whilst Jess was struggling with her treatments and the physical side effects, her emotional and psychological well-being was being supported through love and laughter from the wonderful volunteers and staff of Spread a Smile. This support for children battling serious illness is invaluable. You will never realise how much of a difference you have made to Jess during the last three years.”