It’s not been an easy year for our children; even more so for those children who have had to go into Hospital to receive treatment. The staff do an amazing job to provide the medical care that is needed, but don’t always have the funds to provide the little treats and familiar things that help children cope. The challenges are even greater with the need for social distancing and restrictions on sharing items, and the additional anxieties from the pandemic.

I want to use my role as an Usborne organiser to help bring some comfort and joy to these children. I‘m aiming to raise at least £500 to buy brand new books, games and other resources for the children and staff to use when children visit the Hospitals. In addition to the amount raised, I will also donate my commission to add additional books from Usborne.

University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) Charity is the official hospital charity for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital , Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital. The hospital charity exists to provide the added extras to enhance patient experience during their time in hospital by funding state of the art equipment, facilities, patient comforts and research that are all over and above NHS funding.

Across the hospitals they see over 300,000 children every year in the specialist children’s areas including Children’s Emergency Departments, Children’s Wards and Outpatients Departments. For many of these patients this will be their first experience visiting a hospital, therefore the whole experience can be scary and upsetting. UHB Charity aims to ensure that children have books, play equipment and sensory toys to help keep them calm and comforted during their time in hospital but also to act as distraction techniques to assist the paediatric staff. It is also important that the overall environment when they step into the departments are child friendly, colourful and familiar to help put children at ease as soon as they step in to the Hospital’s care.

Please donate whatever you can to help as many children as we can. Thank you for your kind donations.