Support for families: August 2025

“The ability to listen when you’re going through a hard time. Kindness in providing accommodation and vouchers when your child is in PICU or HDU. Empathising with your emotions and being a friendly face.

“The highlight for us was our child receiving a Katie bear and a certificate. It meant so much to him and he has loved bringing this home.” – heart mum

Financial support in August…

• 5 new families received travel grants

• 3 wellbeing grants given

• 6 external grants given

• 30 Tesco vouchers given

Opportunities For Young People
Youth Day @ Lineham Farm

In August we took our CHSF Youth to Lineham Farm. This was a fantastic opportunity for young people to meet each other, build peer connections and gain new skills in a safe and friendly environment. Members of the medical team also came along to the day including Amy, the new dedicated Transition Nurse.

We also used the session to gain feedback from young people about what they would like to see from the service going forward. We had some fantastic suggestions from asking to do the same event again, to ideas for support while in hospital, and a request for an art based event.

Their feedback will directly influence the work we do with young people and we are excited to see how working collaboratively with the young people we support will impact what we do next.

Results Day

Results day is a big day in anyone’s calendar, and it’s an even more impressive milestone when you have been managing hospital appointments, admissions, medication and transitioning to the adult service.

Many of our young people received their grades this month for Alevels, BTEC, TLevel and GCSEs.

This included one young person who received her grades while staying on the adult ward. She received fantastic grades and a place in her desired college, as well as her fifth Katie Bear! To celebrate this milestone CHSF got her a Deliveroo Voucher and created a pamper pack for her while on the ward.

Results Day
Abi

‘‘Our heart warrior is truly amazing – we are beyond proud of everything she achieves and her never-give-up attitude! She’s proud of her scars and wears them like a badge of honour – we are so grateful that we were believed that something wasn’t quite right with her development! She received amazing treatment and skillful surgery, and she’s now mended!”

New experiences for long term inpatients

Having a child in hospital for a long period of time can create barriers to experiences which many of us may take for granted.

Parents can’t take their child to the park and push them on the swing because they have learnt to sit unaided. They cant access soft play when their child has found a sense of adventure and is starting to pull themselves up on furniture. They cant attend play groups when their child starts to clap along to ‘If you’re happy and you know it!’

CHSF can provide new opportunities for these families when they face a new reality they didn’t know existed.

We are working in partnership with Leeds City and Holbeck Children’s centre to provide a face to face ‘rhyme and play’ session for a family on Ward L51 to promote their 18 month old’s passion for singing. We hope he has the best time and we will be using his voice to ensure we form new connections with services to ensure that these opportunities are available for long term in-patients going forward.

Making Support More Inclusive with Mansi

In September we will be launching our new and more inclusive additions to the Comfort & Care packs for families staying wiht us on the wards. These will include Prayer Beads, Prayer Mats and Dua Affirmation Cards.

Mansi will also be rolling out our Halal treat hampers on wellbeing trolleys across Fetal clinic, Ward L51 and the adult ward We hope to update you all on the success of this in next months impact report!

It’s only with the help of our incredible supporters that we can continue to be there for every family that needs us. Thank you.