Staff from local children’s healthcare services were invited to the latest project day to pitch their ideas for funding to staff and trustees from Rockinghorse.
We regularly work with our network of healthcare professionals to find projects, equipment, and services 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 to help staff provide the best care, 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 every six months 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 under £5,000 would make their lives, and those of their patients, better.
Once we received all the application forms for this latest Projects Day, we arranged a session at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, where our Champions could come and pitch their ideas to a panel of Rockinghorse staff and Trustees.
The latest session took place earlier this week, and it was another great opportunity to understand how the support that your donations provide makes a difference.
All together we were presented with ten different projects which included, amongst others, special diagnostic tools for young diabetes patients, resources for the school at the Royal Alex, a projector to help distract young patients in A&E at Eastbourne Hospital, toys to help support specialist play sessions at Seaside View Child Development Centre, and several room refurbishments in the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital.
Fran Masey O’Neill, Projects Manager at Rockinghorse, said, “Every time we hold one of our Project Days, we always find out so much about how our funding really helps patients and NHS staff across Sussex.
“Speaking directly to our Champions also helps us understand the kind of things that will make the biggest difference to their work.
“Hearing exactly how these projects will improve the care that our NHS colleagues can give to their patients is really important. Not only does it help us better understand the needs of children and families within our community, but it also enables us to talk to our supporters more impactfully about the importance of their fundraising.”
One of the projects that was approved at the session was for special kit that helps diagnose children with autism.
The Autism Team at Seaside View Child Development Centre in Brighton put in a request for an autism diagnostic observation schedule, or ADOS kit for short. This specialist kit is recognised worldwide as the best way to test for autism.
It consists of eight different parts that go through a range of tests including playing, talking, toys, pictures, books and prescribed questions. The team can go through all these elements and looking at the child’s responses can then come to an effective diagnosis.
Having this kit will really help to reduce waiting times for children and families and enable them to get more of the help they need once they receive their diagnosis.
Another project given the green light was for some gifts for children with Cystic Fibrosis.
These children have to come to around four appointments every year at the hospital and this can mean that they miss school. Often schools give
prizes for attendance but due to missing this time, these children also miss out on these rewards.
The team want to be able to make up for this by giving their patients a ‘well done’ gift every year. Not only does this help children feel better about missing out on school prizes, but it also helps them to feel better about coming to so many appointments at the hospital.
After the session staff and Trustees were once again overwhelmed by the amazing work being done by our wonderful NHS colleagues every day.
Fran added: “Seeing these projects first-hand gives us a chance to speak to NHS staff on the ground and see exactly how this funding will help. We can ask questions and find out much more than we can gather just from a form.
“And it means we are better able to share these projects and their impact with our supporters, helping them to really understand why their fundraising is so important.”
To find out more about the projects we fund, take a look at our projects page here.
