Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you know I am a Roald Dahl Transition (moving from Paediatric to adult services) at Bart's Health NHS Trust. Bart's Health is made up of 4 main hospital sites; Whipp’s Cross, Newham, St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London hospitals.

My job involves working with teenagers and young adults who have long term health conditions, physical or learning disabilities, or have been admitted to an adult inpatient ward. We know that if young people have better experiences during this time they are more likely to remain engaged which in turn is more likely to ensure better health, education and social outcomes.

Currently if a 16-18 year old is admitted to adult wards/ areas within the hospital the needs of a ‘young adult’ are not being met. In adult areas these young people have little or no access to play, distraction, TV/ DVD, and they have poor links with the hospital school so can miss out in education whilst in hospital.

The patients admitted can often be frequent attenders due to long term chronic health problems and can sometimes be inpatients for weeks at a time. This can cause disruption to education/ employment and social interactions with peers and as you can appreciate be a very difficult time for them.

Everybody will know a friend or relative who has been admitted to hospital at some point and will know what a difficult and challenging time this can be. It can also be extremely BORING! Being able to improve these experiences for this vulnerable age group can have a huge positive impact on not just their physical health but also their mental health
during this time.

I have a commitment to try and improve the experiences of these young patients and BANISH BOREDOM whilst they are in hospital, I am running the Hackney Half Marathon 2019 to raise money in order to buy equipment and help make some adult clinical areas within the hospital a more young adult friendly environment, and support their educational needs.

By sponsoring me to run the Hackney Half I would like to give you the opportunity to help us achieve this. The work undertaken so far has identified that distraction and boredom are themes that come up time and time again.

Any small donation could go a long way to make a BIG difference for this unique and special group of patients.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.