Posts Tagged :

spread a smile

Canary Wharf Contractors Fund support

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We wanted to shout about our brilliant partnership with Canary Wharf Group and their charity Canary Wharf Contractors Fund, which supports Spread a Smile through a number of exciting initiatives.

They really do go the extra mile for charity, each year hosting an annual Golf Day, Football Tournament and Dragon Boat Race which help to raise vital funds for Spread a Smile, alongside other charities such as London Air Ambulance, St Joseph’s Hospice, Construction Youth and the Lighthouse Construction Charity.

Lucy Jackson, Chief Executive at Spread a Smile said, “It is an absolute pleasure working with the team at Canary Wharf Contractors Fund. They have such enthusiasm to help make a difference and support our work spreading smiles to seriously ill children, young people and their families. We really can’t thank them enough for their wonderful support.”

Canary Wharf Contractors are also the proud sponsor of our annual Comedy Night, helping us to bring this brilliant event to the fore and reach new audiences:

“We’re so proud to continue to sponsor the Spread a Smile’s Comedy Night each year. It’s set to be another great evening and we’re pleased to be able to support it and the brilliant work the charity does spreading smiles to seriously ill children.” Alec Vallintine, Managing Director – Construction at Canary Wharf Group.

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone at Canary Wharf Contractors Fund and Canary Wharf Group for their brilliant support.

First family event outside London

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Last month, as part of Play in Hospital Week 2023, we were proud to organise our first ever family event outside of London.

18 families from Leicester Children’s Hospital and Nottingham Children’s Hospital joined us for a theatre trip to see ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. It was such a special evening as one of our very own Spread a Smile singers played the role of Tink and Mrs Darling in the show.

Our guests were treated to delicious cupcakes from Lola’s Cupcakes and a goody bag from Hasbro plus a meet and greet with the cast after the show which involved a Q&A. Every family was able to take photos with their favourite cast members and they even got to see the magic of Peter Pan flying!

“I just wanted to message and say a massive thank you for tonight. We all had the best time at Peter Pan Goes Wrong and we appreciate the memories we made tonight so much. I find it overwhelming the kindness shown to our special little warrior. Keep up the hard work as the memories that your charity brings are priceless.” Parent

Laura Walter, Director of Services for Spread a Smile said, “We’re so glad we were able to meet so many of our families in person from Leicester and Nottingham Children’s Hospitals. We have seen first-hand just how important it is for our families to be able to experience these special times outside of hospital and we are delighted that we could bring so much laughter and happiness for a wonderful evening together.”

A huge thank you to all of our families for joining us, Lola’s Cupcakes and Hasbro for their kind donations and the team, cast and crew from Mischief and Peter Pan Goes Wrong for their wonderful support and kindness.

Please click here to find out more about our family events and outings.

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.

A record breaking Play in Hospital Week

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Held every October, Play in Hospital Week (PIHW) is a very special week which aims to raise awareness of the benefits and importance of play in healthcare settings.

Play is an essential part of childhood and is at the very heart of mental, social and emotional growth and well-being. It is essential that play continues to be part of a child’s life, even when they are admitted to hospital – a time when they are at their most vulnerable.

This year (9-15 October), Spread a Smile celebrated PIHW in true Spread a Smile style, going all out to do more than ever before to spread smiles and bring joy and happiness to seriously ill children and young people through play. 

A record number of in-person visits…

Last week, we carried out an amazing 19 in-person visits to 17 different NHS hospitals, spreading smiles to over 450 seriously ill children and young people. It’s a huge achievement and our highest number in one week. Our entertainers were out in force supporting Play Specialist teams to celebrate this important week by spreading smiles through singing, music, magic, art and much more.

A special road trip to Leicester and Nottingham…

We were proud to spend two days visiting patients and families at Leicester Children’s Hospital and Nottingham Children’s Hospital. We brought along Fairy Ellie, Marina our incredible face painter, Judge the Spontaneous Poet, and Magic Nick, one of our amazing magicians to visit both hospitals and see patients across all inpatient and outpatient areas. In Nottingham, they hosted a special party with our Spread a Smile entertainers where children could leave their bedspaces and come join in the fun altogether, a brilliant opportunity for patients to connect together and meet others in similar situations. We also brought Lola’s cupcakes to make the party extra special!

Our first family event outside of London…

We were proud to organise our first ever family event for 18 families from two hospitals, taking them to see ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. It was such a special evening and so much fun was had by everyone who joined us. They were treated to a meet and greet with the cast after the show which involved a Q&A, and every family was able to take photos with their favourite cast members. One of our very own Spread a Smile singers played the role of Tink and Mrs Darling in the show, which made it even more special for everyone involved. 

“I just wanted to message and say a massive thank you for tonight. We all had the best time at Peter Pan Goes Wrong and we appreciate the memories we made tonight so much. I find it overwhelming the kindness shown to our special little warrior. Keep up the hard work as the memories that your charity brings are priceless.” Parent

Saturday smiles for patients at GOSH…

We carried out a special in-person visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) on Saturday, bringing the joy of LEGO to patients on the wards during one of the quietest times in hospital. The weekends are a time when there is less to do in hospital and we’re proud to be continuing our weekend visits to support our families at these times.

Play focused Virtual Visits…

We also ran our virtual group sessions this week, focusing on play based activities for patients and siblings of all ages, such as a puppetry workshop, interactive storytelling, improvisation and games.

Spread a Smile Entertainers and staff work closely with and support Play Specialists and Play Workers in 27 Hospitals and three Hospices across the UK, providing a wide variety of entertainment and play activities for seriously and terminally ill children and young people. Our aim is to help distract, relieve fear and stress and create a safe, welcoming environment during treatment and hospital admissions.

We are so proud of our achievements for PIHW 2023 and would like to say a huge thank you to our Spread a Smile Entertainers, the hospital play teams and all of the companies that have helped make it so special. Also, to Mischief and everyone at Peter Pan Goes Wrong for their brilliant support and kindness.

To make a donation to ensure we can continue our vital work, please click here.

Mia’s Monopoly Mitzvah

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At 6am one Saturday morning in September, 11 year old Mia set off with her Dad, Gideon, to complete an incredible ‘Monopoly Board Walk’ fundraiser as part of Mia’s bat mitzvah.

Covering over 21km in 6.5hours, Mia and Gideon visited all of the properties which appear on the original London Monopoly Board, raising over £1,600 so far to help spread smiles to seriously ill children, young people and their families.

Mia said, “I know that I am extremely lucky be able to celebrate my bat mitzvah. In order to help others I walked the monopoly board around London with my Dad to raise money to help children and families across the UK supported by the charity Spread a Smile. I also plan to spend time in the Spread a Smile office to find out more about the fantastic people that run this amazing charity.”

We are so grateful to Mia and her Dad for all their effort and support. Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive said, “It’s incredibly special when young people choose to raise funds for other young people and we were so touched when Mia contacted us to tell us about her Monopoly Board Walk. We are really looking forward to Mia volunteering with us in the office and hearing more about her challenge. As a charity that doesn’t receive any government funding, we rely completely on the generosity of our donors and supporters so that we can continue with our work. Thank you Mia and Gideon for all that you have done.”

You can donate to Mia’s fundraising page here.

An amazing day at the Royal Parks Half Marathon

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What a brilliant day yesterday with Team Smile for the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London!

67 runners joined us to take on the beautiful 13.1-mile course on closed roads and within four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens.

This was our largest team to date including some of our amazing supporters and fundraisers, our Head of Family Events, Natalie Donaldson, 28 runners from the Corinthia Hotel and friends from Mishcon de Reya, Hamilton Court Foreign Exchange, Downing LLP, Blackrock and Convex Insurance.

“What an incredible day to be part of. I loved every second of it and running in aid of Spread a Smile made it all the more special. It was an emotional endurance text which I would 100% do all over again.” Natalie Donaldson, Spread a Smile Head of Family Events

It was a beautifully sunny day and we loved welcoming and meeting all our runners in our first ever Spread a Smile marquee. Our Co-founders Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker and Chief Executive Lucy Jackson were there on the day along with the Spread a Smile team to cheer everyone on.

Thanks to the incredible support and efforts of our amazing fundraisers, over £29,000 has been raised to support our vital work spreading smiles to seriously ill children and young people in hospital.

A huge thank you to all of our runners. We salute you!

Please email Rimi at rimi@spreadasmile.org to join Team Smile for one of our fundraising challenges, including the London Landmarks Half Marathon on 7 April 2024.

Celebrating World Smile Day 2023

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October 6 is World Smile Day and is all about making people smile, through laughter and kindness.

At Spread a Smile we love making people smile every day, but today we have some extra special things planned to help spread even more smiles to the seriously ill children, young people and families we support.

We have a lovely afternoon tea party planned with the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for parents of children on Fox and Rabbit wards. Our amazing friends at Brigit’s Bakery have generously donated 20 delicious afternoon teas for parents to enjoy and two of our talented entertainers will be joining in the fun with music and singing. Our aromatherapist, Priya will also be at GOSH delivering pamper sessions for parents and much needed moments of relaxation and calm. We’re hoping to see many smiles across the hospital from families and the hospital teams alike.

What’s more, Spread a Smile entertainers will be sharing lots of smiles with patients undergoing proton beam therapy at University College Hospital. We really do hope that all of our activities will spread many smiles and bring a little joy.

World Smile Day was initiated by Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts, known for creating the iconic smiley face symbol in 1963. He believed that his creation had become too commercialised and wanted to devote a day to genuine smiles and acts of kindness.

We are extremely grateful for some acts of kindness and support from two of our partners for World Smile Day. Alongside their afternoon tea donation, Brigit’s Bakery will kindly donate 10% from every order placed on World Smile Day. Plus, the amazing team at Mildreds have created a special trio of macrons with all profits from sales this month being donated to Spread a Smile. They will also be adding an optional £1 onto guest bills across their restaurants from 1- 14 October. Find out more here.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Brigit’s Bakery, Mildreds, our hospital partners and all our supporters for helping Spread a Smile do what we do best, today and beyond.

Meet Cary, Spread a Smile fundraiser

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On Sunday 8 October an incredible 67 runners will join Team Smile for the Royal Parks Half Marathon. One of our amazing runners is Cary Driscoll who is taking on this beautiful run in aid of Spread a Smile. We spoke to Cary about why he is running and his top tips for fundraising!

Why have you joined Team Smile for the Royal Parks Half Marathon?

 “I came across Spread a Smile back in 2018 when a family friend’s daughter received visits from their entertainers in hospital. I was touched by the concept and the impact it has on the child and their siblings and parents. So, I decided to run the London Marathon for Spread a Smile in 2019 and it made the incredible experience even more special. I’m really looking forward to taking on the Royal Parks Half as well.”

Is this your first half marathon?

“I have run the Royal Parks Half Marathon twice before, (too long ago to remember the first one!) and it is my favourite half marathon. The crowds as you run into the Hyde Park entrance after running past Buckingham Palace has stuck in my mind ever since. I can’t wait to experience this again for Spread a Smile.”

How have you found the training?

“I know that my marathon days are past me due to cumulative injuries to different parts of my legs and feet!  I’ve found training challenging as a new and wonderful heel injury called Plantar Fasciitis which makes walking very painful for days after a run.  I’ve been managing this by reducing the amount of runs I do and gratefully I’m good to go for Sunday. Team Smile have been brilliant at supporting and motivating me in my training and when I think of the families I’m fundraising to support, I know it will all be worth it.”

What are you looking forward to the most?

“I’m really looking forward to waving to the Spread a Smile supporters at Mile 9 and even more so at Mile 12! I know they will bring plenty of smiles and cheers to help me along. It’s great to know I’m part of a big team that are behind each other every step of the way.”

Any tips for fundraising?

“Regular, but not too regular social media reminders, concentrating on the incredible work Spread a Smile do. I find it strikes a chord with many people who were not previously aware of Spread a Smile, and even if the publicity doesn’t result in immediate donations, it will plant a seed for later – for your fundraising or someone else who fund raises for Spread a Smile in the future.”

Good luck to Cary and all our runners. We’ll be there to cheer you on!

If you’re inspired and would like to join Team Smile for future fundraising challenges, please email Rimi at rimi@spreadasmile.org – why not take one of our places for the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April 2024? Find out more here.

Announcing our new partnership with Abound

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We are proud to announce a new partnership with lending specialists Abound. Not only will they generously be supporting Spread a Smile by making a donation for every one of their loans originated, but their team will also be taking part in Spread a Smile challenge events and volunteering at our family parties and theatre trips.

Mark London, Chief Risk Officer for Abound said about the partnership, “We have seen, first-hand, the incredible difference Spread a Smile makes to the families they support.  Abound is honoured to be supporting their brilliant work.”

Support from companies such as Abound makes a huge difference to Spread a Smile and we’re extremely grateful to them for helping to fund our work bringing joy and laughter to children in hospital and at home.

“Thank you to everyone at Abound and their customers for supporting Spread a Smile and helping to ensure we can continue our work spreading smiles to seriously ill children and young people. Together we’ll be able to reach even more young people and their families during some of the most difficult times of their lives. We are looking forward to a long and meaningful partnership. Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive

To find out more about how you or your company can get involved with Spread a Smile and support our vital work, please get in touch with Amanda Azouz by email at amanda@spreadasmile.org

Mildreds’ macarons help spread smiles

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Looking for a tasty treat which gives back during October? Then look no further than Mildreds and their sister restaurant Mallow.

To celebrate World Smile Day on 6 October, Mildreds have created a special trio of macrons with all profits from sales of this delicious treat being donated to the charity during October.

Each macaron has a different flavour which represents the Spread a Smile colours: sour cherry jam for pink, chocolate orange ganache for orange, and vanilla bean buttercream for blue. And, are as delicious as they look!

Mildreds and Mallow are a group of plant-based restaurants with venues in Camden, Covent Garden, Soho, Kings Cross, Dalston (Mildreds) and Borough Market and Canary Wharf (Mallow).

They have been supporting Spread a Smile for over a year, welcoming some of the families we support for regular afternoon teas at their restaurant in Covent Garden.

Sam Anstey, Managing Director at Mildreds said, “We are so proud to be working with such a special charity so close to our hearts. Spread a Smile do amazing work and all our teams are so pleased to be able to support them. It has been great to be involved and to experience the impact that Spread a Smile have in helping others.”

Alongside the macarons, Mildreds will also be fundraising for Spread a Smile by adding an optional £1 onto guest bills across their restaurants from 1- 14 October.

Vanessa Crocker Spread a Smile Co-founder said, “Mildreds have been a wonderfully supportive partner over the past year, helping to provide moments of respite and relaxation through their afternoon teas for some of the families we support. We’re excited to see their plans for October and World Smile Day and are so grateful to all of the team for their continued support and enthusiasm.”

Please do show your support for Mildreds during October and help us raise as much as possible to ensure we can continue to spread smiles to seriously ill children and young people when they need it most.

Find your nearest Mildreds and Mallow restaurants here.