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Manchester Foundation
Trust Charity

Our Christmas Appeal

Support Our Incredible Youth Service

Christmas Appeal

Supporting Young People in Our Hospitals

For children and young people with long-term health conditions, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital can feel like a second home – a place filled with familiar faces who feel like family.

So, when a young person needs to transition to adult care and leave behind the reassuring comfort of the hospital they know, it can be daunting, unfamiliar and even frightening.

Our incredible Youth Service, made possible thanks to our supporters, works closely with children and young people, their families and clinical teams, ensuring they can step in at the crucial moment.

Together, we can support young people to thrive, even as they move on.

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The Difference Your Support Makes

With your support, we can continue to support our pioneering Youth Service, one of only three in the country, and provide dedicated hospital Youth Workers to deliver vital support at crucial moments.

By building individual, voluntary and trusted relationships, Youth Workers support young people to explore and manage all the different areas of their life which their health condition may have an impact on, helping them to feel seen, heard and understood.

By supporting our young patients through one of the most challenging periods of their lives, our Youth Workers support young people to develop a sense of identity and independence, enabling them to find their own voice.

The Youth Service works with young people to build confidence and give them the opportunity to take part in experiences that may previously have been impossible for them.

By making a donation to our Youth Service this Christmas, you can make a difference that will last a lifetime.

 

Christmas Appeal - Patient Sameer in his hospital bed in a Santa hat

Help Young People Thrive

Sameer – current patient

“Without the Youth Club, I couldn’t socialise or make friends. Being a teenager is the age where we all socialise and learn new things, and I feel like I can do that with the Youth Club. Otherwise, we could miss out on so much by being in hospital. They teach us career advice and they teach us secondary school transition advice. They teach us so much!”

For 15-year-old Sameer, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital is familiar place. He’s been in the hospital on and off while recieving treatment for a bone infection, for up to seven months at a time.

Aside from the difficulty of dealing with illness, young people spending a long time in hospital miss out on crucial experiences as they grow up. These are the vital experiences that make us who we are. They give us confidence. They help us build interpersonal skills. They teach us life lessons that we carry with us.

Our patients can’t have these experiences when they’re in hospital for months on end. Their treatment keeps them removed from the rest of the world. That’s why it’s so important that we have this Youth Service, so we can give young people the experiences and opportunities they need to flourish and thrive.

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Christmas Appeal - Former patient Lois

No Limits to Success

Lois – former patient

“When you’re 13, having 15 months in hospital takes out quite a formative chunk of experience. I think missing that particular bit of adolescence changes you. I had lost most of my hobbies by the time I returned home. I found it hard to relate to my friends at school because I’d had such a different experience to them.”

Lois was in hospital for an extended period of time as a teenager. She was diagnosed with an eating disorder at 13, and spent 15 months being treated in hospital before returning home. Her time in hospital and away from that of an everyday life as a teenager had such an impact on her that it inspired her future.

Lois joined our Youth Forum – a space that gives our young patients a platform to discuss and work to better accommodate the needs of young people in our Hospitals. A regular at Youth Forum, she went on to be nominated as Youth Governor and represent the interests of young people in our Hospitals at Trust members meetings with the Board of Directors. Alongside this, Lois is a medical student at the University of Edinburgh and plans to pursue a career in health policy.

Lois’s journey is a perfect example of the kind of impact that Youth Service intervention can have on young people whose lives have been disrupted by long term health conditions. She is living proof that when these young people receive support and opportunities they need, there are no limits to their success.

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Christmas Appeal - Youth Service Manager Nic smiles in a Santa hat

Give a Long-Lasting Gift

Nic – Youth Service Manager

“I hope that this Christmas, you will be inspired by the difference our Youth Service makes and be moved to give a gift that will last longer than the festive season. For the patients we support, the impact of your gift could last a lifetime.”

Nic Rigby is the Youth Service Manager at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Though she and her team don’t work in a medical capacity, they help to support the emotional and social wellbeing that young people with long term health conditions in hospital so greatly require. One of only three services like it in the country, our Youth Service is supported by charitable funds and the work they do is only made possible by the generous donations of people just like you.

We do all we can to make the Christmas period feel special for our patients and so while Christmas in our hospital can be magical, it’s not home. This Christmas, you can give young people the support they need to ensure their time in hospital doesn’t define their lives. You can help us provide this service all year round and ensure our young people feel seen, heard and understood during their time in our Hospitals.

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Christmas Appeal

Donating Gifts to Our Patients

We know that our kind supporters like to send gifts to our patients in hospital at this time of year.

Whilst this is lovely and we are so grateful for your generosity, often these gifts are unsuitable for all and so many patients are left out.

Instead, we ask that you consider making a cash donation this Christmas. Not only will this ensure all patients benefit, but it will allow us to make the biggest possible impact with your donation.

If you do decide that you would like to donate gifts to our hospital, you can contact us at charity@mft.nhs.uk or on 0161 276 4522 to find out more about the process. Please note that they must be brand new and in their original packaging – due to health and safety, we are unable to accept second-hand or homemade donations.

 

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