Children at The Alex benefit from Rockinghorse’s holistic approach

Thursday 27 May 2010

The family of seven year-old Andrea Dinnage and staff from the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital (RACH) celebrated the success of a new complementary therapy service which was provided by Rockinghorse.

The children’s charity worked with teams of doctors and nurses at the hospital to develop the project which saw 15 children benefiting from such therapies as massage, therapeutic sound and reflexology.

Patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and those recovering in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) had access to a number of sessions to complement their medical treatments.

Andrea recently completed a course of eight sessions for her Cystic Fibrosis. She said: “The massages make me feel better.” Her mother, Mandy Dinnage, added: “Andrea has definitely benefited from the treatment. Every week, she looks forward to her massage, enjoys it and we can see a definite improvement in her condition. We’re so thankful to the hospital staff and massage therapists who have been involved.”

The £10,000 programme was funded by The Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation and was aimed at improving the children’s physical and emotional well-being and helping them cope with their condition and treatment. 

The project, which was extremely well received by staff and patients alike, was led by Dr. Fidler (consultant paediatrician), Liz Symes (research nurse) and Rachel Hill (medical student) with the help of Dr. Seddon and Dr. Patel at RACH and massage therapists Jane Newman and Deborah Hood from the Brighton-based Active Lightworks Charity.

Dr. Fidler said: “We want to thank Rockinghorse and The Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation for providing this service. For me as a doctor, it has been a fantastic opportunity to be able to offer holistic care that really makes a difference to our patients. We really hope to be able to continue this service and extend it to other patient groups, such as those with asthma or Crohn’s Disease.”