Staff from local children’s hospitals were invited to the latest project day to pitch their ideas for funding to staff and trustees from Rockinghorse.
We regularly look for projects, equipment, and services to fund which will help make the lives of babies, children, young people and their families happier and more comfortable. This could be big pieces of expensive medical equipment like neo-natal ventilators, or smaller things like books and toys to help the time in hospital pass more quickly.
Whilst the larger items are important, often items that cost less than £5,000 can have an equally big impact. Which is why we put the call out to our Champions; NHS staff who work across the Alex, Trevor Mann Baby Unit (TMBU) and children’s healthcare settings throughout the county, to find out what projects that cost less than £5,000 would make their lives, and those of their patients, better.
Once we received the application forms for this latest round of projects, we arranged a morning at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, where the Champions could come and pitch their ideas to a panel of staff and Trustees.
The latest session took place at the beginning of June, and it was another great opportunity to understand how the support that your donations provide can make a difference.
All together we were presented with ten different requests which included, amongst others, new paediatric physiotherapy equipment for the Royal Alex, specialist milk warmers for the Special Care Baby Unit in Worthing, training equipment for paediatric surgeons to develop their skills, baby seats to help transfer babies between hospitals, and specially developed tools to help children and families understand and know what to expect from their treatment.
Fran Masey O’Neill, Projects Manager at Rockinghorse, said, “These projects days are a really helpful way for us to not only meet and speak directly with our Champions but to find out exactly what kind of things will make the biggest difference to their work.
“Being able to understand exactly how these projects will impact on the babies, children, and young people that we support is always so important. We come away from these sessions feeling like we have a much better understanding of the amazing work that our NHS colleagues do, and how we can continue to support their work.”
One of the projects that was approved at the session was for a Bayley Scale which, on first inspection, comprises of a suitcase full of different types of toys.
However, this kit is really special as it enables doctors to be able to test babies and toddlers who may have been born very prematurely or suffering with ill health, and who may be at higher risk of developmental issues.
The assessment kit is a standardised piece of equipment which is used across the whole country, so that doctors can carry out identical assessments to accurately gauge a child’s development.
Another project given the green light was a communication tool for children and young people with learning disabilities, mental health conditions or autism spectrum disorder (ASC).
Children coming into hospital for a medical procedure can find it difficult to understand exactly what’s going to happen during their visit, and this can be even harder for children who struggle with the usual communication tools like reading and writing.
However, a clever piece of software called Widget will enable the Play Team at the hospital to transcribe words into symbols and visual communications, making these medical procedures much easier to understand for these children.
After a long morning staff and Trustees were once again blown away by the amazing work being done by our NHS colleagues every day.
Fran added: “Sessions like this really give us a chance to see the results of the fundraising that we do. It also means we can better share these projects and their impact with our supporters, helping them to really understand why their support is so important.”
To find out more about the projects we fund, take a look at our projects page here.
