People’s generosity transforms children’s waiting room

A plea on the community facebook page “The Canterbury Residents Group” for children’s stickers and toys to spruce up the waiting room at the Kent and Canterbury hospital has been a flying success.

The original post asked for toys and wall stickers to be donated to anybody willing to help spruce up the designated children’s waiting area at the hospital.

The campaign came from the manager of the outpatients department buying wall stickers herself and kickstarting the plan to brighten up and make the area more appealing to children, putting them at ease in what can be quite a scary environment.

The post asking for donations asked for anything that can be wiped clean for infection control of toys and appeared a way to involve the community to improve the area for young patients.

Health Care Assistant at the outpatients department Hayley Waller said: “We have honestly been completely overwhelmed with the response the original post received, people’s generosity has been incredible.

“We’ve had donations of toys being dropped into the department and a huge response from some local artists who have offered to paint murals on the walls.

“Our manager has been in contact with one of the artists who is very keen to offer his skills. We have looked into his art work via his website and his talent is incredible.

I never in a million years expected such an overwhelming response to just a simple little facebook post.

“The whole process of this has been so humbling and just proves that community spirit is still very much alive when it comes to helping a local cause such as our hospital.

“I never in a million years expected such an overwhelming response to just a simple little facebook post.”

The artist Gregg Stobbs is based in Kent and his work can be viewed on his website where he has a section dedicated to children’s illustrations.