More than 100 Radio Lollipop Volunteers are now working at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children – bringing their special brand of Care, Comfort, Play and Entertainment to the young patients – both on the wards and in the tube carriage studio.

The first Radio Lollipop Volunteers were trained and on the wards in August 2005 – providing a play service ahead of the studio being operational in April 2006. The official launch last June saw more than 50 trained Volunteers – and now that number has doubled with fourteen or more of the GOSH wards seeing Radio Lollipop bringing fun games and giggles.

Sunday March 11 saw the first Radio Lollipop teams providing weekend help on the wards and live music and competitions from the studio. The aim is to recruit a further 100 Volunteers so that much appreciated play activities can be across all 21 GOSH wards several nights a week and at weekends too.

Commenting on the 100 Volunteer mark Radio Lollipop Chairman and Life President Hedley Finn MBE said:

“Radio Lollipop now has more Volunteers at Great Ormond Street than at any one of the other 20 Stations in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. I take my hat off to our Honorary Chairman Andrew Kendall and his very dedicated team.

Radio Lollipop Management Teams are all Volunteers too. We have no paid staff and everyone has to hold down their own day job while helping us out in the evenings. As well as two hours a week actually with the children on the wards, the Volunteer also handle all the recruitment and training processes. Obviously, the hospitals help too and we are honoured to be working with the wonderful team at Great Ormond Street – who give us excellent support and facilities.”

When we found out that The Cheetah Girls were coming to Houston to perform at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (the largest Rodeo in the world), we checked with our friends at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) to see how we could contact The Cheetah Girls to come visit us! With CHOC’s assistance, we were able to start the process and checking of schedules to see if the “Cheetahs” (as they refer to themselves) could stop by for a little while.

Well, just a couple days before they were to perform at the Rodeo, we received confirmation that they would be delighted to come visit us on Sunday, March 4th. The next big decision to be made was what time and we didn’t find out that information until late Friday afternoon! So, you can just imagine how we spent the next couple of days and in the end, it was well worth it!

On Sunday afternoon, March 4th, we were ready for them! We had patients gathered in the Radio Lollipop Studio and the Pre-Teen room to meet our “Surprise” guests. Plus we had a list of patients that couldn’t make it up to see them at our Studio, and we made arrangements for them to go visit these patients on the floors. We had not told the kids who was coming and the looks on their faces when they arrived in the Studio said it all! The kids were speechless and needless to say, very excited and surprised when they saw who came to see them!

After visiting with the patients in the Pre-Teen room, we escorted the Cheetahs into the Studio, where they were interviewed by Tricky Taylor and Dynamic Dennis. We then escorted the Cheetahs down to visit some patients on our 14th Floor, 8th Floor (Bone Marrow Transplant Unit) where they had fun donning the appropriate garb (gown, gloves, mask) to visit one of the patients on this unit (they were very good sports about this request!); and then off to visit a long-time Radio Lollipop fan and patient on the 7th Floor.

Needless to say, we were the hit for the day and the talk of the hospital for the week! Even the Chief of the Medical Staff at Texas Children’s Hospital heard about the Cheetahs’ visit and mentioned it during a meeting.

A special thanks to our friends at CHOC for helping us make this happen! The Cheetah Girls had a great time and we look forward to having them visit us again!

With Easter just around the corner we would be hopping mad not to get into the spirit. With paper Easter Egg hunts, bonnet decorating and colouring in, every child managed to not miss the lead up that they would normally see in their schools.

So to all the children and their families – We wish you a Happy and Safe Easter!

On Saturday 10th March 2007 Gold Coast Radio Lollipop was graced with one half of the Young Divas. Kate DeAraugo (2005 Australian Idol Winner) and Emily Williams (2005 Australian Idol Runner Up) were kind enough to drop in for a one hour visit to spend some quality time roaming the ward chatting to the children in bed, happily posing for photos and signing autographs.

While we didn’t have time for the girls to belt out a tune for us we did manage to get an on-air interview which was fantastic and it will serve as a great resource for the future.

We would like to thank Kate & Emily (who were naturals with the children) for their time and also Wendy from Sony BMG for organising the visit. It was a great time had by all and we look forward to future visits from the Divas.

Stay tuned for upcoming celebrity visits!!!