Giggle Doctors to provide online entertainment
GIGGLE DOCTORS will now be able to provide a range of interactive entertainment to children receiving treatment or care.
It is a joint initiative funded by four local charities in the hope of making children’s care more comfortable.
The fictitious physicians, including doctors Hip Hap, Ding Dong and Bananas, will provide online activities to children receiving care – starting this month.
It comes ahead of the team from Theodora’s Children’s Charity planning to visit the Princess Elizabeth Hospital next year, having had to postpone a trip this year due to Covid-related restrictions.
Charity co-founder Andre Poulie was particularly honoured to collaborate with the dedicated healthcare professionals in Guernsey.
Mr Poulie and his brother Jan founded the charity in their mother Theodora’s memory after she died in 1994.
Inspired by the lengths she went to in order to lift Mr Poulie’s spirits while he underwent prolonged treatment in intensive care as a child, the charity in her name has since brought the same therapeutic benefits of joy and laughter that he had to more than 500,000 children.
Mr Poulie added: ‘I am so pleased, in this period of increased isolation and anxiety, to modestly offer a world of adventures and moments of joy to children in Guernsey.
‘We are very thankful for the generous support which has enabled this to happen.
‘Today, we initiate a virtual programme which we shall in due course expand with the real and long lasting visits of our giggle doctors.’
The partnership with the giggle doctors will see 100 activity packs made available to young children in the PEH and those receiving care in their own homes.
Boxes are filled with interactive games that the children complete with guidance from online videos featuring the giggle doctors.
Once they have completed all the activities, children will then receive a personal video call from one of them.
The local charities which have made this possible are Ernie’s Angels, Friends of Frossard Children’s Ward, Dizzy Donkey and Jake’s Heartfelt Fund. Support has also been received by Investec and Guernsey Tennis Club as well as by the family and friends of Mrs Jane Sweet.
