Nicole’s Sweet
Thank you for visiting my page about The Silver Lining Appeal and Nicole’s Sweet.
The Silver Lining Appeal was set up in 2004 to raise £400,000 to
buy new and specialist equipment for the newly refurbished children’s ward at
King’s College Hospital in London. I’ve
been going to King’s since I was 11, and spent three months there after my
brain haemorrhage when I was 13. I was
asked to be an ambassador for the appeal, which of course I agreed to.
My surgeon, Chris Chandler,
and me at The Silver Lining Appeal launch party 11th May 2004
A few months after the party, I had a coffee morning which
raised £300 for the appeal. Then at the
beginning of 2006 I set myself the target of raising £30,000 for The Silver
Lining Appeal, which was the amount they needed to equip a neuro-rehabilatation
room on the Children’s ward. It took two
and a half years of constant fundraising before I reached my target, but I got
there in the end. In total I raised
£43,629.38 for The Silver Lining Appeal.
I officially finished fundraising for King’s College Hospital on the 6th
July 2008, when I abseiled 100ft down the side of the hospital!
The neuro-rehabilatation room will be called ‘Nicole’s Sweet’,
and will be officially opened at the end of 2009. Like me, it’s totally unique in the NHS! It will include two electric beds, two
computer systems that means the children can operate the TV, turn on music,
open and shut the curtains etc, all by the touch of a button, two flat screen
TVs, two laptops, two playstation 3s, two parents beds. so that they can stay
with their child, a hoist in the ceiling above each bed which will lift
children to the bathroom if they can’t get out of bed and walk there, and not
forgetting - there will also be two fish tanks in the room!
The room will help children recovering from the severest of
brain and spinal injuries. Often these children need to learn everything again,
from eating and talking to moving and walking.
Neuro-rehabilatation is essential to a child’s recovery, and it’s vital
that they receive the best treatment possible. Nicole’s Sweet will give them the best chance
of a good recovery.
