Theodora Children's Trust

About

Theodora Children's Trust brings music, magic, fun and laughter to children in hospital through weekly visits from Giggle Doctors; professional artists trained to work in the hospital environment.  For most children, a stay in hospital is a daunting and anxious experience. A normal day consists of tests, injections and side effects as well as feeling isolated from school, home, their friends and everyday life. Many of the children we visit spend weeks at a time in hospital; on a dialysis ward many of the children are there 3 times a week for most of their childhood and on an oncology ward children may be in and out of hospital for years.  When a child is ill the focus of everybody they come into contact with is their illness. The Giggle Doctor only looks for the child in the child, for the mischief, the curiosity, the desire to play and hopes that for five minutes or so the illness is forgotten, and laughter and joy take its place. When this happens you see overwhelming relief in the parents, doctors and nurses. For a moment it is as though the illness has left the room and everybody can take a well deserved breath of vitality. The effect is contagious; a song and dance in a corridor or on a ward may lighten the atmosphere of the entire ward, as people smile at each other or try and contain a giggle.   Our Giggle Doctors know many of the children they visit by name, and their weekly visits are eagerly awaited and always too short. For a short period, they allow children to leave behind the sometimes bewildering and frightening world of the hospital for a world of fun. Our programme really does allow children to be children in the true sense of the word.