Posts Tagged :

spread smiles

In-person visit to Nottingham

 780 400 Susie
By:

The Spread a Smile team recently brought joy to NHS partner, Nottingham Children’s Hospital with the first of our regular in-person visits to children on the wards

Spread a Smile has been supporting young patients at the hospital since 2021, spreading smiles through virtual sessions and seasonal activities such as treat drops. We’re delighted to be expanding our support to include monthly in-person visits by our talented team of entertainers, ensuring we can reach even more seriously ill children and young people when they need it most.

Spending time in hospital can be really challenging for children, especially when they’re missing school, friends, family and their usual activities. That’s why our entertainer visits are so important – providing laughter and entertainment, plus opportunities to build relationships and connections with others. Fairy Becca and Judge the Poet spent the day meeting patients, sharing songs poetry and chats and bringing the usual Spread a Smile sparkle across the wards.

Spread a Smile also recently donated one of our special libraries, full of books suitable for all ages and abilities for families with children on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to borrow and enjoy The donated is part of our Intensive Care Library Project which has seen us deliver libraries to 14 NHS hospital partners across the country, helping to provide meaningful distraction and engagement to families with seriously ill children.

To stay up to date with all the things Spread a Smile, please sign up for our monthly e-newsletter.

Alternatively, if you’d like to support our visits, you can make a monthly donation here.

Fintern take on 3 peaks challenge

 780 400 Susie
By:

Our fundraisers really are incredible, going the extra mile for Spread a Smile and raising funds through a range of different challenges and activities. Earlier this month a brilliant team from one of our corporate partners, Fintern/Abound, took on the Three Peaks Challenge in aid of Spread a Smile. climbing the three highest mountains in the UK in just 24 hours.

We spoke to Mark London, Chief Risk Officer at Fintern about the experience.

“Our Three Peaks team consisted of 12 staff members, plus two special guests from HSBC and EY. We set off on day one with a spring in our step for our first (and highest) peak, Ben Nevis, standing at 1,343 metres tall and the highest mountain in the UK.

“Sadly, the weather conditions were not on our side with polar gale force winds knee deep snow and a -15c wind chill factor making for arctic conditions at the summit. As a result, all organised tours were turned around at Corner 8, (approximately 1,200 metres) due to the need for additional gear to safely continue. It felt a bit frustrating not to reach the summit, but it was out of our control, and we were proud to have reached where we did in such difficult conditions. All in all, our first peak took 4 hours 40 and it was then on to the Lake District to take on Scafell Pike.

“Standing at 978 metres, Scafell Pike is England’s highest peak and welcomed us with much better weather conditions. The scenery was amazing as we approached in the evening sun, driving alongside Wast Water and the view from the top was so lovely. The team made it up and down in a speedy 2 hours 57 minutes, which we were really pleased with. We felt energised and even sprinted the last part of the descent to be sure to get in under three hours!

“Last stop was Mount Snowdon in Wales, and we were pleased to have good conditions for most of the way up before being met with strong, cold winds at the summit (1,085 metres). The round trip up and down Wales’s highest mountain, took a respectable 4 hours.”

“This was the second time I’ve undertaken the Three Peaks Challenge in support of Spread a Smile, and it was brilliant to do it again, this time with colleagues as a team building exercise and to raise even more funds for our charity partner. There was a huge sense of camaraderie as together we covered 26 miles (plus quite a few more in the van), climbed for nearly 11 hours and reached a total of nearly 2,900 metres and all in just 24 hours. What’s more, together we’ve raised over £3.5k to help spread smiles to seriously ill children and their families, which makes the effort even more worthwhile. “

Feeling inspired? Please do get in touch with the team to find out more about fundraising for us. Email fundraising@spreadasmile.org today!