Making a Difference

The Club, in response to specific requests have, over the years, presented special equipment to children's units. Recently the Club presented three Apple I-Pad Mini 3's complete with protective cases and screen protectors to The Ulster Hospital, Acute Child Health Department - Paediatric Outpatients/Rapid Response Unit. The ward sister in charge of the unit, Karen Orr, requesting them explained that the range of games now available on tablets can keep the children amused for hours and even the youngest patients are experts!

They will be invaluable in two main areas:

• to distract the children when they are first admitted with serious injuries and require detailed examination before they can be anaesthetized and
• when children are confined to bed for long periods and must rest with minimal movement to enable the early stages of healing to be successful.

Picture right shows Club Past President Brian Ferguson handing them over to Ward Sister Karen Orr.

The Club earlier this year also handed over to Mitchell House School a special piece of outdoor play equipment designed for children with disabilities.

These were provided to make a difference through a special Club Fund - contributed to weekly by members at the meetings - and used to make life easier for children in hospital in the Belfast area or in special care units with close ties to hospitals. Several donations have been made over recent years carefully targeted at areas where it really does "make a difference" and it is difficult to explain just how much these gifts mean to the children. The most striking thing we have found is that while the hospitals are almost always excellent in providing purely medical care, they sometimes seem to overlook the more personal problems. They seem to be able to spend millions of pounds in certain areas but struggle and delay to find small amounts in others.

More information on the Children in Hospital fund can be seen here.