By Ellen Blessington | Communications Manager and Senior Fundraiser
It has been a busy few months for the Giggle Doctors as they have been working hard to support the mental health and wellbeing of children across the country. In the first 5 months they brought magical moments to 6,923 children in hospital!
One of the children who met the Giggle Doctors for the first time was Tilly, and her mum shared this lovely story below:
"Tilly was a little unsure when the Giggle Doctors first popped up in the doorway… but within moments they had completely won her over. They tuned in to her straight away, following her lead and diving head-first into all the wonderfully silly things she suggested. She was in hysterics at all the bottom jokes - and the more she laughed, the more outrageous they became!"
"Watching her giggle and light up with happiness was just the best feeling. Their pockets were like treasure chests - a joke poo, a tiny bubble machine, even a disco ball! There was always something new to make her squeal with laughter. We had the most wonderful 15 minutes spent with these 2 amazing ladies."
"As soon as they left, Tilly said, “They’re the funniest people I’ve ever met!” Thank you, Giggle Doctors, for giving us such a special moment during what has been a really stressful week. It’s a memory we’ll treasure forever."
Giggle Doctors undertake extensive training to help them understand what they might expect from a child in hospital, giving them a toolkit for play which they can draw on, and their approach is entirely improvised based on an individual child.
Bubbles are a very important prop which magically appear from a Giggle Doctors colourful coat and are used to connect with a child. In a place filled with routines and treatments, bubbles can create tiny adventures - something to catch, pop, or watch floating away. In those moments, children aren’t patients, they are explorers, gigglers, and dreamers!
Fiona recently shared, "We met Dr Dilly Dally in Birmingham Children’s Hospital yesterday. She was wonderful, from the moment she entered the room, it was as if the sun had come out. The children all responded to the music, singing and bubbles with happiness and enthusiasm. You could feel the uplift in the mood. My son Merlin was in a lot of pain with his hip but totally forgot about it whilst talking to Dr Dilly Dally and playing with the bubbles!"
Isabel from our Giggle Doctor programme team recently saw an interaction where a playful moment with bubbles played an important role in a child's medical treatment:
"Dr Geehee uses a small handheld bubble blowing machine which is in the shape of an animal. She used this as a puppet and invited the little boy to tell the puppet to blow bubbles – which of course it did! The nurse in charge on the ward came into the room to respond to an alert on one of his monitors during this part of the encounter and observed how much both the boy and his mother were enjoying the bubbles."
"This moment fed into this child’s medical treatment directly: when the nurse returned to her desk she began organising for bubbles to be incorporated into this little boy’s physiotherapy session later in the day. The nurse explained that the Physios had been struggling to motivate him to engage in breathing exercises because he was bored and in pain, however, the bubbles were engaging and fun, so she immediately identified this as a route to help him access an important part of his medical treatment too."
Thank you
We were so grateful to have your kind support and for all of the smiles, giggles and happy moments we are able to bring children in challenging times - we couldn't do it without you!
If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please feel free to email enquiries@theodora.org or follow us on social media @GiveAGiggle.
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By Ellen Blessington | Communications Manager and Senior Fundraiser
By Ellen Blessington | Communications Manager and Senior Fundraiser
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