By Ellen Blessington | Fundraising Officer
We want to say a big thank you for your very kind support of our work through GlobalGiving. At Theodora Children’s Charity we improve children’s experience of hospital by combining music, play and storytelling. Our 33 Giggle Doctors aim to improve well-being and increase opportunities for play by bringing magical Giggle Doctor moments to children at a time when they need it most. We have been visiting children in hospitals, hospices and specialist care centres across England for 25 years.
During their visits our Giggle Doctors aim to:
Each interaction is tailored to the child and the Giggle Doctor visits are designed to provide whatever the child needs at the time, whether it’s a joke, a song or simply companionship.
We get so much wonderful feedback from the families of the children we visit and, to show the impact of your support, we would like to take the opportunity to share some of it with you.
"My daughter arrived on the ward today very teary eyed and nervous, with her little head full of memories of needles, pain and illness. However, we arrived at the same time as the giggle doctors!!! Within a minute they had completely captured her attention and put her totally at ease. She completely forgot where she was and thoroughly enjoyed her time with them both, as did I! Thank you so much for everything you did for Ava-Grace today, you made a huge difference in a little girls world and made the hospital a much brighter place to be" – A parent
We work closely with hospital staff to monitor the quality of our work through regular meetings. We collect feedback from children’s families through our online survey which is open all year round. This provides us with detailed information about the impact of the Giggle Doctor visits. We also carry out in depth interviews with parents of children who have been seen by the Giggle Doctors and who are keen to share their story with us. Through this we are able to learn more about their child and the impact our visits have had.
How your support helps children in hospital
We receive lots of feedback from families about how our Giggle Doctors have made an impact for their child, and it is thanks to support like yours that we are able to bring these magical moments.
We are excited to share the news that we are launching live video calls with our Giggle Doctors! We are working very hard to continue to bring joy and laughter to children in hospital at a time when it is needed most.
As our Giggle Doctors are currently unable to visit children in hospital due to Covid-19, we have adapted our Giggle Doctor Programme to be available digitally. With our Giggle Doctor Live Calls, we aim to provide the same service, but through a screen instead of in person. Starting in October, the Giggle Doctors will be online every week, and parents will be able to visit our website and book a time slot to connect with the Giggle Doctor via a Whats App Video Call on their phone or tablet. Our Giggle Doctors are also creating Giggle-a-Grams, which are personalised Giggle Doctor videos that you can request for your child.
"My 2 1/2 year old daughter absolutely loved her live video visit from Dr Flowerpot. We had lots of laughing and play together and it was really easy to do the online booking and visit." - A parent
We are so grateful for your generous support, which has allowed us to continue bringing fun and laughter to children in hospital at a time when it is most needed.
"Everyone at Theodora Giggle Doctors charity is glad that with our Live Visit Programme we will be able to visit children who we know have been missing us. We have been missing them too and are working hard to be able to visit in person. Until then hope we that lots of you will get in touch and book a live visit. Many thanks for all your support." - Judi Byrne, Chief Executive
If you have any questions or would like to find out more about our work, please feel free to email ellen.blessington@theodora.org
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