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Happy 13th Birthday Spread a Smile

 780 400 Gabrielle Devine
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On 11 April 2026, Spread a Smile celebrates 13 years since the charity was founded, bringing joy, comfort and distraction to seriously ill children and their families across the UK.

As we celebrate this milestone, a donation of £13 can help us continue delivering these moments of support to children and families when they need them most.

Spread a Smile began when Co‑Founder Josephine Segal saw the difference an entertainer made to her nephew, Aaron, while he was receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). After a magician’s visit lifted Aaron’s spirits, he asked if other children on the ward could have the same experience. That moment inspired Josephine and her friend Vanessa Crocker to found the charity, working closely with GOSH.

Thirteen years on, Spread a Smile now works with 39 NHS hospitals across the country. We deliver regular in person entertainer visits to hospital wards, alongside virtual sessions and treat drops, including 2,000 bespoke festive Smile Hampers sent to seriously ill children and their siblings at Christmas. Alongside this, we run a wide range of family events, from Summer and Winter parties to theatre trips and shared experiences outside of the hospital environment, all designed to support children and families living with serious illness.

We marked our birthday with special visits to Great Ormond Street Hospital, King’s College Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and The Royal London Hospital. Young patients and healthcare professionals enjoyed entertainment, delicious treats from Lola’s Cupcakes and gifts for children on the wards.

We are incredibly proud of the impact Spread a Smile has had over the past 13 years and deeply grateful to our supporters, whose generosity makes every visit, smile and shared moment possible. Thank you to our supporters, corporate partners, volunteers, hospitals we work with

Donate £13 today to help us continue supporting seriously ill children and their families.

Here’s to 13 years of spreading smiles where they’re needed most.

Happy 12th Birthday Spread a Smile

 780 400 Susie
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On 11 April 2025, Spread a Smile celebrated 12 years since the charity was founded, with a special party for patients and families in The Lagoon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

We were delighted to welcome our friends from Redstor who kindly supported the event, and it was such a lovely day, with music, magic, fairy fun, balloons and delicious cupcakes from the amazing Lola’s Cupcakes. There was so much fun to be had by the patients, families and staff that joined us, and it was lovely to celebrate with everyone at GOSH, where our work began 12 years ago.

In 2013, Co-Founder Josephine’s young nephew, Aaron, was receiving treatment at GOSH. After noticing that Aaron was becoming increasingly withdrawn, Josephine arranged for a magician to visit. It had the most remarkable effect: Aaron’s spirits were lifted and his treatment became more bearable.

As a result, Aaron asked if magicians could also visit friends that he’d met on the ward and Josephine promised Aaron she would find a way to make it happen. Josephine teamed up with friend and former colleague Vanessa Crocker and working closely with GOSH, they founded Spread a Smile.

Since then, the Spread a Smile has continued to work closely with the team at GOSH to spread smiles to patients across the wards, providing regular in person entertainer visits, online sessions, treat drops and much more.

We are extremely proud of our work over the past 12 years spreading smiles to thousands of seriously ill children and their families and extremely grateful to all of our supporters for helping to make it all possible.

Please email us if you or your company would like to find out more about supporting future events like this – we’d love to hear from you!

A huge thank you to Redstor and Neil, Olena, Kateryna and Philipos for supporting the party and here’s to many more years spreading joy and happiness when it’s needed most.

Celebrating Spread a Smile’s 11th birthday at GOSH

 780 400 Susie
By:

On Thursday 11 April Spread a Smile celebrated our 11th birthday with a very special event in the Lagoon Canteen at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

We were joined by nearly 100 people including inpatients, outpatients, family members and hospital staff for fun art activities run by our artist Abi, entertainment from Mr Magic, poetry from Judge the poet and a little bit of fairy magic from Fairy Jude. Our Co-Founder Josephine and her therapy dog Buddy also joined us to help spread even more smiles. There was also a quieter space for one-to-one chats and colouring.

It was a wonderful morning and a chance for us to engage with so many people in the hospital where our work began 11 years ago.  To add to the celebrations, our friends from Lola’s Cupcakes also provided some delicious cupcakes for us to share with our guests. We were also joined by two lovely volunteers from our partners, Corinthia London.

Laura Walter, Spread a Smile’s Director of Services said, “It felt incredibly special to be at Great Ormond Street Hospital to celebrate our birthday with patients, families and staff alike. We feel honoured to continue our wonderful partnership with GOSH and to have the opportunity to be there for children under their care and support the amazing hospital teams.”

Spread a Smile’s partnership with GOSH dates back to when Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker founded Spread a Smile 11 years ago.

In 2013, Josephine’s young nephew, Aaron, was receiving treatment at GOSH. After noticing that Aaron was becoming increasingly withdrawn, she arranged for a magician to visit. It had the most remarkable effect: Aaron’s spirits were lifted and his treatment became more bearable.

As a result, Aaron asked if magicians could also visit friends that he’d met on the ward and Josephine promised Aaron she would find a way to make it happen. Josephine teamed up with friend and former colleague Vanessa Crocker and working closely with GOSH, they founded Spread a Smile.

Since then, the Spread a Smile has continued to work closely with the team at GOSH to spread smiles to their patients, providing regular in person entertainer visits, online sessions, treat drops and much more.

Today we are proud to visit the hospital twice a week and every other week on a Monday, providing support across all inpatient wards including the three paediatric intensive care units at the hospital: Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU), Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU) and Cardiac Intensive Care (CICU) as well as other wards such as oncology day care, outpatients and pre-op.

To find out more about our work supporting hospitals such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, please click here. Please donate to help us ensure we can continue to be there when it’s needed most. Thank you.