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partnership

Four years of smiles with Micro Scooters

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Spread a Smile and children’s scooter brand Micro Scooters are celebrating four years of partnership, marking a decade of donating scooters to hospitals across the UK to bring moments of fun, movement and freedom to seriously ill children.

Since 2021, Micro Scooters has donated hundreds of scooters to NHS hospitals, where they’ve become a much-loved part of life on the wards. Used by children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses, the scooters provide a rare sense of independence and joy during what is often a long and difficult time.

Micro Scooters has committed to donate 20 scooters along with helmets every month in 2025. These will be distributed to children receiving ongoing care at Spread a Smile’s 39 NHS partner hospitals across the UK.

“We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Micro Scooters,” said Laura Walter, Director of Services at Spread a Smile.
“Their donation offers the opportunity for physical activity, which is crucial to maintaining a child’s well-being. Scooting is an incredibly fun way to encourage children to stay active, especially when they are in hospital for extended periods. It offers a welcome distraction from treatment, supports rehabilitation goals, and helps children feel like kids again.”

Spread a Smile’s mission is to bring joy and laughter to seriously ill children and young people in NHS hospitals, hospices and homes through regular in-person visits and virtual entertainment. Its team of entertainers including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs supports children and families through the toughest of times.

Micro’s donations complement this work by offering entertainment and movement-based support that wouldn’t usually be available in a hospital setting.

“Micro Scooters has always been driven by the mission to give children and families a cleaner, greener way to explore the world,” said Ben Gibson, Managing Director at Micro Scooters.
“Our commitment to supporting children in hospital is something we’re incredibly proud of. We know these scooters offer far more than fun – they provide respite, they support recovery, and they help children feel a little more like themselves. Seeing their faces light up as they scoot through a hospital corridor is a powerful reminder of why we do what we do.”

If you or your company would like to find out more about supporting and partnering with Spread a Smile, please email the fundraising team at fundraising@spreadasmile.org – thank you.

New NHS partnership with The NHNN

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Spread a Smile is delighted to announce a new partnership with The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. NHNN is the UK’s largest dedicated neurological and neurosurgical hospital, providing comprehensive services for the diagnosis, treatment and care of all conditions that affect the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system and muscles.

NHNN is an adult hospital, but Spread a Smile will be supporting young people receiving specialist treatment at the hospital, with our talented entertainers, including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs, spending quality time with patients through regular monthly in-person visits. In addition, patients and their families will be able to access a range of Spread a Smile support services including virtual sessions, outings and events.

Frenchesca James-Young, Advanced Youth & Young Adult Support Co-ordinator for The NHNN/UCLH said: “One of our patients, B, has been at the NHNN for 6 months, following a swift transfer from another hospital. This time has been a rollercoaster for both him and his Dad, with B rapidly deteriorating and being moved to the ITU at the NHNN. There were many points where we thought he would not have seen Christmas.  

“During this time, I contacted Spread a Smile, having worked with them previously, to see if they would consider visiting young people in an adult setting at The NHNN to help spread smiles. Of course, Spread a Smile responded immediately, making it happen.

“For a patient like B, aged 22 but developmentally aged around 6/7, this was instrumental in helping to boost his mood from the day to day medical things that were happening to him. Spread a Smile brought magic and songs, cheer and joy into an adult hospital – something we hadn’t seen before.

“Fast forward to Christmas 2024 and Spread a Smile organised a special visit on Christmas Day for B on ITU! They brought an amazing gift hamper full of things he loved – Toy Story’s Buzz lightyear, football and stickers to name a few.

“B is not the only young person who has benefitted from the joy Spread a Smile brings. Our project sees patients up to the age of 24 – some want to sing, some might miss their dog at home and love meeting the Spread a Smile therapy dogs, some enjoy the tricks by the magicians.

“I can’t thank Spread a Smile enough for all they do and the joy I get from seeing the faces of patients, their families and the staff around them is truly amazing.”

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive added, “Spread a Smile is proud to be supporting young patients at The NHNN, helping to provide distraction and much needed moments of engagement and fun. We are looking forward to our visits, meeting even more patients, families and staff and spreading as many smiles as possible.”

Click here to find out more about our work with 36 NHS hospital and 6 hospice partners across the country.

New partnership with Bain Capital spreads smiles

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Spread a Smile is delighted to announce a new partnership with Bain Capital which will see the private investment firm support the charity through a range of exciting initiatives.

To kick off the partnership, Bain Capital staff joined the Spread a Smile team to help pack 1,874 Smile Hampers being sent to seriously ill children and their siblings in time for Christmas. The willing volunteers hand-picked gifts with each recipient in mind. It was a brilliant opportunity to introduce the Spread a Smile’s work in more depth, with the Bain Capital team taking an active role supporting our families during one of the most difficult times of their year.

Alongside engaging in various volunteering opportunities, Bain Capital will fund 44 in-person hospital visits by Spread a Smile’s talented entertainers, enabling us to carry out bedside visits to 660 seriously ill children at St Mary’s Hospital, London. These visits will make a huge difference to the children and young people we support, providing moments of distraction and laughter in amongst the pain and worry of illness and treatment plans.

Spread a Smile Chief Executive, Lucy Jackson said, “We’re delighted and grateful to be working with Bain Capital to bring joy and happiness to seriously ill children in hospital. Everyone at Spread a Smile is looking forward to getting to know the team and spreading even more smiles together.”

A huge thank you to everyone at Bain Capital for joining the Spread a Smile family.

Whipps Cross Hospital – New NHS partner

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Spread a Smile today announces its latest NHS hospital partner Whipps Cross Hospital, which is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. Spread a Smile will work closely with the play team and staff across the paediatric wards, to support seriously ill children and young people receiving treatment for a range of everyday and highly complex and specialist conditions and illnesses. These patients, along with their families are invited to join the Spread a Smile family and benefit from their services.

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. Whipps Cross Hospital joins 28 other major and speciality NHS hospitals and three hospice partners already supported by Spread a Smile, taking the charity one step closer to its aim.

The Spread a Smile team of talented entertainers, including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs, will spend quality time with patients in hospital through one-to-one visits and group sessions. Patients and their families will also be able to access virtual online events and activity sessions, including art clubs, balloon modelling, music lessons and more, enabling the charity to see and support as many people as possible. All with the aim of spreading hundreds of smiles and a lot of happiness to children undergoing treatment for serious illness and their families.

Children at Whipps Cross Hospital will be able to join special themed virtual activity days, via iPad, celebrating seasonal occasions such as Christmas, with a virtual Santa’s grotto, benefit from regular treat drops and enjoy entertainer visits scheduled throughout the year, all giving seriously ill children and their families the opportunity to join in with fun and exciting experiences that they may otherwise not have access to.

Rebecca Bremner, Play Specialist at Whipps Cross Hospital said of the partnership, “Spread a Smile has been an amazing addition to facilitating smiles and laughter to Acorn ward (and beyond!) in Whipps Cross. We take great pleasure in showing the entertainers across the ward and visiting the patients we feel are in need of a distraction and a positive experience within the sterile hospital environment. Often children and young people feel isolated and excluded from what is going on around them when it comes to their treatment. By having Spread a Smile visit it allows them to feel a connection to something that is real in front of them – talk of blood tests, results, scans etc can make a child or young person feel disconnected. But the wonder of having their card appear at the top of a pile or a favourite Disney song echoing through the halls is magical to say the least! We also had a 9-year-old boy unwell with asthma on the ward, who was very anxious at having his treatment, then Spread a Smile arrived to distract him with some magic, bubbles and lots of laughter. 

“We also find that children and young people live through experiences by media, so having the option for online activities can make our patients feel included, especially when one of our long-term patients interacted with her favourite YouTube star in a Spread a Smile event! In conclusion we thoroughly enjoy our visits from Spread a Smile. The experiences that the patients receive are not rushed and are inclusive.  Everyone feels important and worthy of something a bit special instead of everything being about illness or treatment which often comes first within a hospital environment”.

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive added, “It is such a pleasure to be supporting the amazing team at Whipps Cross Hospital to spread smiles to seriously ill children and young people on the wards. We are looking forward to meeting even more patients and their families as our partnership with the hospital develops, being there to support them when they need us most.” 

To donate to help us continue to spread smiles, please click here. Thank you.

Spread a Smile partners with Kingston Hospital

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Spread a Smile today announces its latest hospital partner, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, based in South West London, which provides a full range of diagnostic services and treatment services. Their Paediatrics departments care for around 5,000 children and young people every year, including 2,000 inpatients. These patients, along with their families are invited to join the Spread a Smile family and benefit from their services.

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. Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust joins 27 other major and speciality NHS hospitals and three hospice partners already supported by Spread a Smile, taking the charity one step closer to its aim.

The Spread a Smile team of talented entertainers, including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs, will spend quality time with patients in hospital through one-to-one visits and group sessions. Patients and their families will also be able to access virtual online events and activity sessions via iPads, including art clubs, balloon modelling, music lessons and more, enabling the charity to see and support as many people as possible. All with the aim of spreading hundreds of smiles and a lot of happiness to children undergoing treatment for serious illness and their families.

Children at Kingston Hospital will be able to join special themed virtual activity days celebrating seasonal occasions such as Christmas, with a virtual Santa’s grotto, benefit from regular treat drops and entertainer visits scheduled throughout the year, all giving seriously ill children and their families the opportunity to join in with fun and exciting experiences that they may otherwise not have access to.

Julie Morris, Play Specialist, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said, “We are so excited to be working with Spread a Smile at Kingston Hospital. They are such an amazing charity and we are so happy to have them visit us on a monthly basis. The first visit, which took place in September, was truly magical and all the children and parents were so happy, and had so much fun! We had LEGO building activities, stories and a beautiful music session which was so calming and the children enjoyed requesting songs and singing along. 

“The children and parents will benefit from the monthly visits, as it  will really cheer them up and help them have a happy, positive experience in hospital, even in the toughest of times. Being in hospital for long periods of time can be so difficult for everyone, so the visits will make a huge difference to long term patients. Thank you so much Spread a Smile, you really do spread happiness!”

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive added, “Spread a Smile’s aim is to bring joy and happiness into the lives of as many seriously ill children, young people and their families across the country as possible. We are delighted to be working in partnership with the brilliant team at Kingston Hospital to deliver entertainment, laughter and bring the Spread a Smile magic to patients, families and staff alike.”

To find out more about our working supporting hospitals and hospices across the country, please read on here.