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| Prince Harry meeting a WellChild award winner |
Prince Harry welcomed brave sick children at children’s charity, WellChild Awards
WellChild hosted their third annual awards ceremony to celebrate exceptional children’s health professionals and brave children who cope so well with their life changing illnesses. Award winners from across the UK were met by Prince Harry at a special VIP Families reception before joining other guests and celebrities including Penny Lancaster, Rod Stewert, John Barnes and children’s presenters Dick and Dom for a champagne reception.
Not a dry eye was left in the house during the Awards ceremony which was hosted by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis as video footage showed the stories of each winner. At the end of the ceremony Prince Harry gave each of the winning children a commemorative Anniversary medal to celebrate WellChild’s 30 years of helping sick children and their families through nursing care, support and medical research.
As one of the winners of the best brave category, Natalie aged 18 said “This was a night I will never ever forget for as long as I live…. Famous people were everywhere I was in my element!.... Things like this just give me the strength to carry on, such a memorable evening, thank you Wellchild for everything”
The Children Winners are:
Best Brave Children
 Lewis Jeynes, age three, from Doncaster for playing and smiling cheerfully even when his degenerative condition has caused him to lose the ability to communicate, eat or move around.
Cody Taylor, age three, from the Wirral for her strength and courage as she battled to survive the many complications of her rare genetic disorder.
Oliver Burton, age five, from Leicester for smiling, singing and being a joy to be around through endless months of chemotherapy for leukaemia.
Katie-Ellen, age four, from Runcorn for making the most of life through all the hardships of having a rare syndrome which has affected most aspects of life and damaged many of her major organs.
Anthony Wilson, age seven, from East Refrewshire for being a joy to have in the classroom and continuing to try his best at everything in spite of serious heart and lung disease.
Rebekah Hesmer, age seven, from Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex for holding her head up high through all the trials of having a disfiguring and painful incurable skin condition.
Ryan Kelly, age nine, from Daventry, Northants for keeping everyone else cheerful through all the complications of his genetic disorder which causes heart abnormalities, learning difficulties and has left Ryan with a tracheotomy to help him breathe.
Zena Barthorpe Robinson, age 11, from Nottinghamshire for bravely joining in with everything she can in spite of her rare condition which has meant numerous operations and painful procedures.
Joshua Edwards, age 12, from Southampton for holding on to his dreams even when a blood clot on his spine left him paralysed from his chest down.
Jodie Erica McLoughlin, age 14, from Bradford for outstanding bravery through all the operations, pain and loss of mobility caused by having Hunters Syndrome.
Tom Walker, age 16, from Loughborough for focusing on keeping the other children in the ward happy whilst himself undergoing painful chemotherapy for bone cancer and having to have an arm amputated.
Natalie Robinson, age 18, from Sheffield for remaining a sweet and kind daughter in the face of a devastating life-threatening illness which damages all her major organs.
Best Caring Children
Simon Austin, age 16, from Liverpool for unstinting devotion to his step brother Callum as he went through treatment for cancer.
Chloe Sewell, age 11, from Elm, Cambridgeshire for helping the whole family through her care and protection of little sister Lauren who has multiple health problems.
The Adult Winners are:
Best Doctor
• Dr Milford, Consultant Nephrologist, Birmingham, for the most outstanding care and attention and giving his 100% dedication to Tyrone who has has a serious kidney condition for the past 15 years.
Best Nurse
• Caroline Sanders, Urology Consultant Nurse Specialist, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital for being the one person Christopher Anderson who has Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus can always count on to be there to help keep him and his family feeling positive.
Best Community Practitioner• Brother Francis from Brighton for going beyond the call of duty to help, support and advice the families of children at the Demelza team, based at Red Lion House in Magham Down.
Best Medical Team
• Mr Masih Kader and his team from Lewisham Hospital for their brilliant, direct yet caring approach when Curtis Cockling developed a serious bowel condition as a tiny baby.
Best School Professional
• Clare McQuade from Hinchley Wood, Surrey for making the life of Ben Pickering, who has life-limiting Infantile Battens Disease, more of a celebration than it would ever have been without her help.
Best Allied Health Professional
• Bernard Wighton from Bow, East London, for making such a difference to the children and staff at the Richard House Children’s Hospice through his devoted and talented work as a play and care worker.
WellChild
WellChild is the UK charity dedicated to the needs of sick children and their families. Through Care, Support and Research, WellChild provides children and families with practical solutions to real life problems, working so that every child has the best possible health.
Care
WellChild Children’s Nurses provide specialist medical care and direct support in the home to chronically sick children and their families. They also offer much needed practical and emotional support, occasional respite and act as the family’s advocate. WellChild’s nurses allow sick children, often with complex needs to get out of hospital and home to their families and to receive the right treatment and care that they need within the home environment. It is well known that children cared for at home, surrounded by their family are happier and do better.
Lucy developed jaundice at five weeks old and was diagnosed with a rare liver disease, biliary atresia, which can be fatal if untreated. Following a liver transplant, she needs regular monitoring and care, which could take place at home if she had a WellChild Children’s Nurse – reducing the long, frightening trips to the hospital that usually mean an overnight stay.
Support
Our Nurse-led WellChild Helpline (0845 122 8636) provides confidential advice and support to families and children who need information about a disease or health condition. This support helps reduce the isolation and fear many children and families suffer as a result of illness. Practical help is vitally important when caring for a sick child. Our Helping Hands volunteers provide one off or more regular support to families in desperate need. This may include making a garden safe and accessible to a newly disabled child or refurbishing a bedroom to make it more comfortable.
Research
Since 1977, WellChild has been developing pioneering treatments and cures in research units at hospitals across the UK. Many hundreds of children are alive today because of WellChild’s research and thousands more benefit from improved treatments and care across many childhood conditions from cancer to meningitis, liver disease to premature birth.
When Jake was 9 months old he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a disease which severely affects internal organs. As he could not talk Jake was only able to communicate his pain through prolonged and loud crying which was extremely stressful for both Jake and his family. Through techniques developed at WellChild’s Pain Research Centre, the cause of Jake’s pain was finally diagnosed and he could receive treatment. Jake’s family, like thousands of others, have benefited from techniques to assess pain in non-verbal children and can now receive more effective care.
WellChild is the only children’s charity in the UK that’s committed to the needs of all sick children and their families, whatever their illness, through care, support and research. WellChild’s care, support and research reach the children and family who need it most. WellChild relies entirely on voluntary donations to continue to save lives, care for sick children and work so that every child can be a well child. www.wellchild.org.uk
FACTS AND FIGURES
There are 14 million children in the UK;
1 in 5 of them has an illness or disability that won’t go away like diabetes, epilepsy or a liver or heart disorder
1 in 20 children will end up in hospital this year with an acute illness
every 30 minutes a baby is born with a genetic disorder
every day four families receive the devastating news that their child has cancer, more than three out of every ten will die
each week, 30 children are struck down by meningitis and three die
There are three million children in the UK that suffer from an illness or disability – that’s more than at any time in our history.
October 2007 |
Market Research, Parents and Babies
