Posts Tagged :

party

Summer Party 2024

780 400 Susie

The Spread a Smile annual Summer Party returned to Coram’s Fields in London on Thursday 25 July and it was another incredible day filled with fun, laughter and smiles.

We were joined by 780 children, young people, family members and colleagues from our NHS hospital partners and we loved seeing so many of our families and friends coming together to enjoy themselves.

“We’ve had the most incredible day. Thank you all so much to everyone who’s been part of it. My husband and I have come with our little boy Jacob who’s got leukaemia and our little girl, and we’ve had the most magical time together. To spend time together as a family has been wonderful. We’ve had so many laughs and everything he could wish for is here – thank you so much!” Mum, Lucy

The Spread a Smile team once again went all out to put on our best party yet, with so much for our guests to do and enjoy. Over 160 volunteers gave up their time to run a range of different stalls for our guests to enjoy including arts and crafts, face painting, nail art, glitter tattoos, animal petting, slime, football, friendship bracelet making, biscuit, hat and tote bag decorating and water bottle personalisation.

We were joined by Anna’s Animals who brought along some gorgeous animals including tortoises and rabbits. Our friends from the LEGO Group were on hand with trays full of Lego for everyone to get creative building with, plus Hasbro manned their own interactive game stations! Guests also enjoyed making beautiful flower crowns with Freddie’s Flowers, their own bespoke smiley BN biscuits with McVitie’s and the slimiest slime with Slime Planet. And everyone enjoyed the inflatable football goal from Non-Stop Action and the Pop-Up Arcade.

Our brilliant team of Spread a Smile entertainers filled the day with music, singing, dancing, bubbles, magic, poetry and much more. Thomas, Chocco and Zara our therapy dogs also loved meeting lots of new friends.

There were food and treats galore including ice cream rolls from our partners Pan-n-Ice, wood fired pizzas from the Wandering Pizza Company and delicious treats from our friends at Mildred’s, Brigit’s Bakery and Lola’s Cupcakes.

We are extremely proud to be able to deliver days such as this for the families we support, and it was a wonderful opportunity for our guests to put aside their worries for an afternoon and enjoy being together.

We can’t thank our wonderful volunteers enough for giving up their time to make the day possible, plus all of our generous supporters who donated supplies, food and drink.

A special thanks to our friends from Children with Cancer UK and the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation for their generous support

Thank you to all of our friends, families and colleagues for joining us and making our Summer Party 2024 one to remember. We’re looking forward to next year already.

“Yesterday we attended the Summer Party for the first time…it was truly magical and beyond anything we had imagined. Thank you for throwing such an amazing event! The highlight of the whole day for Layla was dancing with Peppa Pig. She threw herself into it and didn’t stop until Peppa had to go for a rest.

“There definitely was something for everyone, and so many opportunities for creativity with bag and cap designing, open spaces and seated areas, and so many snacks! It was lovely to see so many children enjoying their day, and for me to see my two babies together, enjoying their day out, just being ‘normal’ siblings on a fun day out. They have been forced to spend so much time apart from each other/ limited to hospital visits for so long, so this was really special.” Hena, Layla and Idris

To help ensure we can continue to spread smiles to seriously ill children and young people, please donate here. Thank you.

 

Our Summer Party is back!

780 400 Susie

Exciting news! The Spread a Smile Summer Party for the families we support will return to Coram’s Fields, London, on Thursday 25 July.

This very special free event will welcome hundreds of children and young people supported by Spread a Smile

along with their siblings, families and carers to spend a magical fun filled day with us. With stalls, games, activities, singing, music, magic, balloons, bubbles, delicious food and so much more, the aim is to provide an opportunity for families to enjoy a day out together, away from the pressures of treatment and illness.

Register here

Laura Walter, Director of Services for Spread a Smile said, “The whole Spread a Smile team is getting so excited for our annual Summer Party as it’s a real highlight of the year for everyone involved. As usual we’ve been working hard to make sure this year’s event is the biggest and best yet, with amazing support from some of our partners. There’ll be slime making with Slime Planet, a LEGO station, games and Play-Doh fun with Hasbro, biscuit decorating with McVitie’s, animal experiences with Anna’s Animals and loads of arts and crafts activities led by the Spread a Smile team and volunteers. This year we’ll also welcome our friends from Freddie’s Flowers for flower crown making, host an interactive gaming tent and be on the lookout for footballing talent with our giant inflatable football goal.

“There will be a chance to meet many of the Spread a Smile entertainers who will be there performing and spreading smiles and our VIP guests can look forward to lots of delicious treats from our wonderful friends at Lola’s cupcakes, Brigit’s Bakery, Mildred’s and the Wandering Pizza Company.

“We are looking forward to treating lots of the children and young people we support, along with their siblings and families to a very special fun day making lasting memories.”

Find out how you can support our 2024 Summer Party!

Pre-registration is required to attend, and you can sign up for free here.

Date: Thursday 25 July, 11am-3pm

Where: Coram’s Fields, 93 Guildford Street, London WC1N 1DN

Who’s it for? Families with children and young people up to the age of 18 with a long-term illness or condition and/or under ongoing care with a UK NHS hospital. We welcome siblings and family members too.

A very special party for our families

780 400 Susie

Last Saturday we welcomed over 100 of children and families we support to a special Spread a Smile Party, generously hosted by our friends at Corinthia London.

It was a truly magical day out for everyone who joined us, with our guests enjoying a special visit from Father Christmas, magic, facepainting and the chance to meet Thomas the Therapy Dog, Santa’s elves and our beautiful Christmas tree fairy.

There was so much to do and see, with a delicious afternoon tea, hot chocolate, cookie decorating, bauble making, Christmas card crafts and graffiti art, nail painting and more. It really was a day to remember full of festive fun and activities.

Days out like this mean a huge amount to the families we support. We know that everyone in a family is deeply affected by the illness of a child or sibling. Spread a Smile’s outings, events and activities aim to support young patients, their parents, carers and siblings and bring moments of respite, joyful experiences and enduring memories at the most challenging of times.

As the parent of one of the children we support said, “I just wanted to say a massive thank you for our amazing experience on Saturday. It really was a wonderland, and it was so special for us to spend some one-to-one time together as her brother has been going through treatment for 2.5 years, so as you can imagine time together doing lovely things has been very little. Everyone was so welcoming and went out of their way to make her so happy.”

A big thank you to the Corinthia London for their wonderful support and for helping to make our families so welcome. This very special partnership is making a real and positive impact for our families and we can’t thank them enough for their support.

Find out more about our events and outings here.