Half a million pounds raising smiles for children and families at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Every year Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) receives over 255,000 patient visits. These patients are young children who are suffering from rare, complex and often life-threatening conditions, from across the country and abroad. Many families will visit GOSH today, in need of desperate help.

It’s crucial that GOSH is able to offer first class clinical care, staff training and support for families and patients needed to save young lives, but this is only possible with continuous funding. That’s why the generous donations that you have been making through Pennies to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity when shopping at a branch of The Entertainer, online at Hawkin’s Bazaar or eating at ASK Italian are so important, not only helping thousands of children but their families too.

One such family your kindness has rescued is Astrid’s. Astrid was a happy and healthy 4-year-old until her mother Deborah spotted a lump growing on her cheek. Astrid’s condition was initially seriously underestimated but after initial treatments failed, she was referred to GOSH where she spent two days undergoing tests. When the diagnosis was confirmed as cancer Astrid started her first course of chemotherapy. She coped well and the lump (which was discovered to be a lymphoma) shrank considerably.

However, the second course prompted a very serious negative reaction in Astrid and she developed pancreatitis. She was rushed to intensive care where she spent the following week before she was moved to the Lion Ward where she was treated for the next two and a half months. Astrid was incredibly ill and could not eat, drink or walk but slowly her health began to improve and she was well enough to restart her chemotherapy treatment.

Astrid is now nine years old and it has been two-and-a-half years since the end of her treatment. She visits the hospital for regular check-ups but is luckily back to the happy and healthy girl she was before her diagnosis. She is a very creative and brave young girl and with the immense help of Great Ormond Street Hospital and the charity, her family and her were able to make it through a difficult and challenging part of their lives.

However, Astrid is just one of the children your extreme generosity could have helped over the 5 years that Pennies has been a proud partner of GOSH. During that time, you’ve helped raise an extraordinary £532,618.48 and counting.

To put this amazing number into perspective, just £20 of that could help Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity pay for specialist equipment to help hospital researchers better understand children’s DNA, while as little as £50 could pay for a parent to stay overnight in a family accommodation unit.

By donating at ASK Italian, The Entertainer and Hawkin’s Bazaar, you can continue to give your small change a big purpose, and help hundreds of thousands of children like Astrid. GOSH only continues to be one of the world’s leading paediatric hospitals due to the continued support from people like you, so we think that deserves a huge thank you, from Pennies and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.