How sparkle activities help children like Olivia

Our Sparkle Fund provides a little sprinkling of joy into the lives of long-term families by making occasions like birthdays special or simply by providing little treats and activities to lift spirits.  Witnessing first-hand what an impact this makes, in 2022, we made the decision to enhance our sparkle offering within the hospital with the introduction of a new coordinator called, Holly.

Over the past year, with thanks to people like you the Sparkle Fund has coordinated lots of special visits and provided countless glitter tattoos. She has also extended our wonderful therapy dog team from one to four, meaning that we’re able to bring this very popular type of light relief to both families and staff on a more regular basis.

The Sparkle Fund helps to make sure that children’s birthdays are still special, even if they are being spent in the hospital. The Sparkle team arrange parties in the playrooms or at the bedside complete with birthday cakes, gifts, and even a visit from some of the children’s favourite characters. The fund also ensures that children don’t miss out on other special occasions, so Santa still made a visit at Christmas time and pancakes were still decorated on Pancake Day. And it isn’t just the children who benefit. The Sparkle Fund allows us to arrange some much-needed R and R for parents too, with reiki and massage sessions and special treats on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Oncology patient, Olivia, has been in and out of hospital since the beginning of 2022 and celebrated her third birthday on Rainbow ward last Spring. Olivia’s mum, Kelly, said: “The sparkle activities have had such an amazing effect on Olivia’s wellbeing while we’ve been in hospital. Despite everything she endures as an inpatient, she’s always happy to come back because she knows she can have her nails painted, a glitter tattoo or a visit from her favourite character or therapy dog.