My name is Kaci. I am 7 years old. I am doing a sponsored read, 24 hours of reading books to raise money. Why? Well, last month I spent the whole of February in two hospitals. Dolphin Ward at Princess Alexandra Hospital and D2 Paediatrics at Addenbrooks. I underwent two serious surgeries, had a total bowel blockage, too many infections to mention, RSV, Pneumonia and a blood clot. Thankfully, I am now at home continuing my recovery. During my stay in both hospitals, I was unable to use the play rooms due to being too unwell to get out of bed and then too infectious to other patients to use it. The amazing people who work in the play team saved me and helped me pass the time by bringing toys for me to play with. What we now know is that they have to raise funds to buy the toys that they offer to us patients. Often these are old toys and games that are constantly used and cleaned throughout the day. The lego I built, the slime they made with me, the games we played, the films made available to watch and the crafting we did, all helped me by passing the long hours of recovery time in bed. The play team are like hero’s on the wards that get hardly any appreciation, yet to us, they are amazing fabulous people. During my stay there were children whose parents couldn’t be present with them 24 hours a day, some who never had any toys at home! (and some who had no visitors at all) It was the play team who took on that responsibility and looked after those children. To us, they are hero’s ‍♀️.

My aim is to ask all of you who read this to donate something for my sponsored read, even if it’s £1, towards my fund raising to enable me to purchase toys to give to the play team so they can make other children like me “happy” whilst they have to stay in hospital. I have used £30 of my own birthday money from December to start the process and my mum and dad have also bought them toys. But I want to make it bigger and help them as a thank you for making my stay in hospital a brighter one. So they can do the same to other children like me. Thank you for taking the time to read this.