NEWS
Latest News
4 May 2009
Radio Lollipop Newcastle, this weekend distributed their first 50 welcome packs to wards at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary.
The Awards for All lottery funded welcome packs have been designed to comfort children, provide care and entertain them at times when other issues are out of their control.
Each item in the pack has been chosen specifically to have some sort of therapeutic or entertaining property, easing the burden on hospital play specialists and parents to provide constant entertainment for the children when they are on the wards.
Helen Hudspith, press and PR officer at Newcastle said of the packs
We want the packs to go to children who have long term conditions and will require regular attention by Radio Lollipop. We have chosen the items really carefully so that they have tangible benefits for the kids:
baseball caps are an excellent support for children who lose their hair during chemotherapy treatment;
play sheets and accompanying pen, pencil, rubber, coloured pencils and pencil case all help to ease the boredom of long hospital stays;
notebooks allow children to create a diary or just express themselves in any way they want to;
yo-yos encourage children to be active and move around rather than sitting in bed all of the time.
As you can tell we have used our experience of spending time with long-term patients to put together a pack that is fun, exciting but also have a real purpose to it.
In addition to the items shown Radio Lollipop Newcastle will also be adding a 30cm ruler, a plastic mug, a stress ball and a foam square puzzle to the packs once production of these items is complete.
Kate Fenwick, fundraiser, said
The team at Newcastle would like to thank Awards for All for their generous funding on behalf of all of the children who will benefit from the packs.
We hope to be able to raise the funds to sustain the packs once the first 1000 packs run out as we see a real value in them for the children on the ward.
Were proud to be associated with such a great project.
