Jun 30, 2017 - GIVING CRUMLIN KIDS A HELPING HAND. AFTER years as a ... 'fair play to you for giving your time' but I fe
22 ............... Friday, June 30, 2017
1RM
GIVING CRUMLIN KIDS A HELPING HAND AFTER years as a patient in Our Lady’s Hospital, Tracey Heffernan can’t wait to return to the ward. For now she spends her free time there playing with sick youngsters.
And she says being back in the Crumlin children’s hospital really is good for her health. Tracey, 37, is a volunteer with Children in Hospital Ireland, and is using her own experiences as a cardiac patient to put a little sunshine into the youngsters’ lives. She said: “As a child, I remember staying in the hospital and the days being long. I would have loved to have the day broken up with some play. “I do remember a nurse doing a puzzle with me as a teenager and being grateful. Now as CHI volunteers we do the puzzles and games and let the nurses do their job. “We set up in the playroom and then one of us will go around the ward to see if any children would like to come into the playroom or, if they are confined to bed, we ask if they would like colouring or games brought into them. “If our ward is quiet we sometimes go down to the baby ward, to see if any parent would like us to sit with the baby so they can take a break. “People often say, ‘aren’t you great for doing that?’ and ‘fair play to you for giving your time’ but I feel privileged and thankful I can volunteer with CHI. “I feel that I benefit as much as the children. If I have had a stressful day a
By FIONA ELLIS few minutes in the playroom and the stress disappears. “I never come out from a shift in the hospital feeling in bad humour so it benefits my health. “Others say, ‘oh I couldn’t do that, the poor sick children, is it not upsetting?’ but my response is always, ‘They are just children who want to have fun and still love to play’ and to see the smiles on their faces when we arrive is reward enough.” Tracey is among more than 400 volunteers who give their time to sick youngsters in 13 hospitals nationwide. Orla Kennedy, CEO of Children in Hospital Ireland said: “Their gift of play-time to each and every sick child is invaluable.” And research has shown people who volunteer are happier, fitter and feel less alone, according to a report from Volunteer Ireland. The charity surveyed 1,800 of their volunteers. Six out of ten said volunteering increased their selfesteem, and more than half reported a positive impact on their own mental health and well-being. Four in ten said it improved their physical health. l FOR more information, visit: www.childreninhospital.ie.
HOSPITAL . . . Our Lady’s, Dublin
SMILES BETTER . . . Tracey with Jessica Moir, 14, from Donegal & Aidan Murray, 10, from Wexford
After years in hospital I’m glad to volunteer
HAPPY TO HELP . . . Tracey
