My name is Gemma Peterman and I was born into a world that wasn’t always accessible for me as I am visually impaired. I have experienced many challenges living with multiple eye conditions affecting my sight in both eyes. Growing up I endured countless appointments and procedures which became a regular part of my childhood. From these endless clinic appointments, I was introduced as a child to the department of hospital play and health play Specialists. From my own personal experiences of being supported in hospital by Health Play Specialists this has inspired my career, I recently joined the play team at Moorfields Eye Hospital in which I support children and young people with similar stories to mine, who are visually impaired or have conditions affecting their eyes.

Children have a right to play and this doesn’t change during their time in hospital, play in hospital provides children with a sense of normality during a time which can be challenging for them. In hospitals, play is used as a method to distract and prepare children for surgery or medical interventions they may receive, such as blood test. As a child I remember my play specialist distracting me in the anaesthetic room making the experience positive and reducing my anxiety levels.

At Moorfields Eye Hospital we support mainly children with Visual impairments or who are blind, due to this we need to adapt play to ensure it is accessible to their needs. Currently for distraction in theatre our iPads have broken, which has made distraction difficult to always achieve. Having iPads for distraction will support the children at Moorfields as it will help provide that vital distracted needed to psychologically support the children in theatre.

Receiving new iPads with a large screen display and multiple accessible features such as zoom, voice over and contrasting colours will allow those children with limited vision to have the opportunity to use the iPads which adapted to their needs. As a play team we also support children/young people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities in which these children may be non-verbal, having an iPad will allow these children to communicate through PECs applications, the iPads will also provide deaf children the ability to communicate through typing, if staff members don’t know British Sign Language. Overall, this will give these children the ability to have a voice during their time in hospital.

I will be running The Big Half with my guide runner and cousin Chloe Jacobs to raise money for Friends of Moorfields Charity, to help the play team and I at Moorfields to reach the goal of receiving new iPads for the children’s ward.