Doctors, nurses and other ward staff on the children's wards at Northampton General Hospital have taken on the monumental challenge of walking the 301 miles from London Paddington station to Disneyland Paris to raise funds for a new outside play area between Paddington and Disney wards.
The paediatrics team took inspiration from Northampton College Health & Social Care students, Ellie Undewood and Sinead Campion who did the walk back in February and raised £380 for the Northamptonshire Health Charity fundraising appeal.
It is an EPIC virtual walking challenge but this May Bank Holiday Weekend will see about 25 staff from Disney and Paddington take it on and collectively walk those 301 miles in a manner of different ways.
When meeting with Ellie and Sinead earlier this month to thank them for their fundraising and being the inspiration behind this staff fundraiser Lead PHDU Nurse, Alison Hart had said how someone had said shouldn't they be walking from London to Peru, where Paddington Bear is actually from but naturally walking 6,075 miles across a three-day weekend is mission impossible!
Those poor feet!
Even amongst the 25 members involved with the challenge it equals around 12-miles each which is only just short of a half marathon distance.
The ward teams at Northampton General are so passionate about this new outside play area because of the huge impact it will have for all children staying in hospital.
Some children can spend long periods in the hospital, especially those undergoing cancer treatment and other illnesses.
"We want to make this an inviting and peaceful place to give children and their families somewhere they can escape to from being in hospital so long," explains Liz Jenkins, Junior Sister on Paddington ward.
The idea for the improvement of the play area came about from discussions of the Paediatrics Shared Decision Making Council (SDC), whose mission it is to improve patient care and staff experience.
Sue, who is herself a member of the SDC says, “Having a bright, welcoming new play area will be fantastic!
It will be a therapeutic outdoor space where all children and parents can spend time outside, in all weathers.
This space will help promote children’s health and well-being during their stay within the hospital environment.” Please sponsor the hardworking team on their EPIC walking challenge via their >>Just Giving page<<.