Great ormond street hospital

I haven't blogged in ages, how rude! And this is a posting I wanted to do when I got back from our visit to GOSH, so late it is, but at last I'm catching up.

We went to record for c&c at great
Ormond street hospital, and then Flora came into the studio. I learnt so much, what a brilliant lady, so articulate, confident and knowledgeable. Great ormond street are so much more than a hospital, and function on so many levels. The planning that goes into the care provided to each child who needs GOSH, from around the world, is amazing. The medical care is something I knew about, that's the hospital bit...but schooling, preparing for exams, making sure the kids still get trips out. What was really interesting is the preparation for a child who has had a long term illness and been in hospital - or in and out of hospital for long periods of their life. Flora explained that as a child, your looked after and protected by parents and nurses, but as your care goes from the children's hospital to adult care the patient needs to understand and start to be able to deal with taking a different role in their care, dealing with doctors, understanding their condition. This was something I hadn't even thought of, but there's such a good system in place to make sure this is handled in the best way possible - as Flora explained it can be a scary and strange transition, to suddenly be in control.

We take so much in life for granted, and complain over nothing - comparatively speaking. My auntie spent some time being treated at GOSH many years ago, they now have a ward just for children suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). When my auntie was born my gran struggled to find any information about the disease, and from my grans persistence and love the charity Debra (named after my auntie) emerged. It shows how much has changed and progressed, and now GOSH have the care necessary to take on the critical diseases, the illnesses that are rare and not understood, like EB was all those years ago.

There's so much more happening at GOSH, but primarily it's about the children and the families. I'm grateful we have such an amazing institution.

Here's Flora. The next time your having a moment feeling sorry for yourself - just give yourself a little talking to. We all do it, we all pamper ourselves with self pity, some people seem to do nothing but complain and wallow. Then you meet someone who has been through so much at such a young age, but is so strong and optimistic, it really gives you the slap we all need now and again to realise just how lucky we really are.




A real inspiration, and I'm sure we'll see more of the lovely Flora on our screens - a budding actress.

Thank you GOSH and everyone who contributes to keep their amazing work possible

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone