Middlesex TLC were invited to attend the annual Northwick Park Hospital Play Festival along with other children’s charities and organisations including Starlight Healthcare, London NorthWest Healthcare, Little Journeys and the Children’s Dental Care team.
Hospital, paediatric, administration and play team staff joined the Middlesex Teddies for Loving Care charity celebrate their 20 year anniversary of raising funds and providing 10″ teddy bears to local hospitals, including NWPK, across the Province of Middlesex since 2005, with the 35,000th TLC teddy bear gratefully received by Jalpa Gohil NWPK’s Emergency Departments play specialist.
The Play Festival was organised by Gail Manning, NWPK’s registered health play specialist, supported by the play teams staff with Harrow Radio providing the music and members from the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance service much to the delight of all the children and parents in attendance and enabled the Middx TLC Chairman Campbell Caraher explain to the staff, parents and wider community how the scheme has been funded and managed by local Freemasons over the past two decades.
Donations are raised through various schemes, including the Patron scheme where Lodges & Chapters agree to making a 5 year financial commitment to the TLC with early single penny going towards the purchasing of the TLC teddy bears.
Jalpa explained that “she couldn’t express enough how much the children enjoyed their time at our Play Fair, especially while checking out their TLC teddies with the medical equipment at the teddy bear hospital. It was a joy to see their excitement and NWPK hospital would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude for the beautiful Teddy bears the Province of Middlesex provide for our hospital. Your support from the TLC Charity means the world to us, especially as you celebrate 20th Anniversary. Congratulations!”
The TLC teddies are given to children by the nursing staff at their discretion with the main objective of “turning tears into smiles”.
The nurses use the teddy bears as a distraction tool and even bandage the bears to help children understand the treatment they’re about to receive.
One nurse explained that once a child has been given a bear the effect is immediate and they feel protected and safe which helps the nurses carryout out their treatments and assessments.
