Every time a Radio Lollipop Volunteer visits children in hospital fun and joy meets the children. The volunteers place the children at the centre of all they do, giving them a voice, choice and take the children’s mind off the reason why they are in hospital. The play, crafts and game activities at their bedside, the interaction on the radio by making requests, singing, dancing or even presenting on the radio is what is happening each evening. The joy on the children’s faces as the volunteers share cheesy jokes and distracting them. It’s magical.
This fun is not exclusive for the children as their siblings, parents, carers and medical make the most of volunteers being on the wards too. This gives them the chance to join in or take a small break from having to entertain or relieve the pain or boredom the children are experiencing.
The whole of Radio Lollipop is run by volunteers and its funds are raised by its volunteers too.
LolliAid is an important annual fundraising event. Stephan AKA DJ Wheels has been a volunteer with Radio Lollipop in Edinburgh for 19 years, he just loves it, going around the wards on a Monday and Wednesday evening, or helping co-present in the studio. Lolli Aid started in 2022, purely because he wanted to give something back to his local station in Edinburgh, he never dreamed that Lolli Aid would become more and more popular each year to the point where it’s now able to help raise money for Radio Lollipop stations around the UK. To date Lolli Aid has raised over £3,000 and can’t wait to do it all again this year for Radio Lollipop in Manchester, England. It has and does make a huge difference in enabling Radio Lollipop services to continue. Any help or donations are welcome and appreciated.
Thank you to Stephan and his DJ team for making this happen and making it a great success….… 12 hours of not stop spinning discs…awesome. This will be taking place on the 26th July 2025, 11am-11pm, listen in to the team and join in the fun.
A little about Radio Lollipop in Manchester: we have thrived over the 34 years it has been providing its services to the children at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Since the pandemic, it has taken its toll on the team. The team’s focus is to increase the number of volunteers on the wards. This leaves very little resource for the volunteers to raise funds. The team are positive and are keen to get back to full capacity and be healthy enough to fundraise too. The help from LolliAid is hugely appreciated to keep things moving and providing all that is required to provide the service in Manchester.
LolliAid will be streamed live via kick.com and restream just search for lolliaid in the search bar.