St George’s welcomes charity partner Momentum to celebrate their 18th birthday
This May Momentum Children’s Charity, a local charity which partners with St George’s hospital in Tooting to support families with seriously ill children, will be celebrating their 18th birthday.
Momentum Children’s Charity provides personalised support to families who have a child with cancer or life-challenging illness. They offer a wide range of services from music therapy for children struggling to express their emotions about their diagnosis, specialist bereavement support for grief-stricken parents, or respite breaks for families in desperate need of precious time together when cancer means a traditional holiday is not possible.
Naomi Oldrieve, Paediatric Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at St Georges said:
“Our team at St Georges work hard to provide the best clinical and medical care, while we try to, we don’t always have as much time as we’d like to spend children and their families. The Momentum Family Support Worker is brilliant at picking this up, ensuring that families can have a chat and switch off from talking about treatment programs, procedures and prognoses.
“Momentum ensures these families can access information and psychological support when they need it, and in an efficient way. They do an amazing job at supporting not only the entire family but at supporting us on the ward too – we frequently see character visits to the ward which Momentum have arranged, this makes a huge difference to our day. It brightens the whole atmosphere, and it is just the most special thing to see our young patients laughing and giggling, just like any other child meeting a princess or a pirate!”
Momentum was initially set up in 2004 to provide a freezer and some ice-lollies on the ward at Kingston Hospital as treats to soothe mouth ulcers for children undergoing chemotherapy. Fast-forward 18 years and Momentum Children’s Charity has now grown to a team of 24 employees who support over a thousand people, across more than 320 families.
Bianca Effemey, Founder CEO at Momentum Children’s Charity said:
“I am delighted to be celebrating 18 years with Momentum, we have achieved so much and reached so many people since we bought that first fridge-freezer – including surviving the pandemic!
“Over almost two decades the charity has touched the lives of more than 10,000 people – from the families and children, to their supporters who have rallied together to help raise funds, to the nurses, doctors, arts therapists and volunteers who have all formed the wider Momentum family. This family pulls together, time and again, with many of those we have supported, turning the tables by becoming supporters of the charity, volunteering to help other families or to raise much-needed funds.
“It is this family community we have created that I am most proud of. Our families are at the heart of everything we do, shaping our work and the support we offer.”
Momentum Children’s Charity now partners with nine hospitals across South-West London, Surrey and Sussex. St George’s paediatric services are rated Outstanding by the CQC, they treat over 130,000 children every year, so partnership with Momentum means pressure is taken off doctors and nurses by the charity’s Family Support Workers on the wards spending time with families in need of someone to talk to.
Momentum Children’s Charity have completed more than 100 projects to transform the healing environment for children at partner hospitals. These magical makeovers make hospital stays and procedures less frightening and provide welcome distractions for the thousands of children treated each year.
Notes to editors
Momentum Children’s Charity
Momentum Children’s Charity supports families across South-West London, Surrey and Sussex whose children are facing cancer or a life-challenging condition. We partner with local hospitals to offer personally tailored support to the entire family through our family support workers, both in hospital and at home. Our services include counselling, creative therapies, special experiences and respite breaks. We also improve the environment for children treated in hospital with our children’s ward refurbishments, transforming bare, clinical areas into bright, child-friendly spaces.
www.momentumcharity.org Registered charity number: 1106677
For more information about Momentum Children’s Charity and future press opportunities, please contact:
Lucy Coleman, PR & Ambassador Relations Officer: lucyC@momentumcharity.org
07502 038 090 / 0208 974 5931
St George’s University Hospitals NHS FT
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest healthcare provider, major teaching hospital and tertiary centre for south west London, Surrey and beyond – and one of the largest healthcare providers in the UK – serving a population of 3.5 million.
Its main site, St George’s Hospital – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals – is shared with St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research.
St George’s is one of 11 adult and children major trauma centres in the UK, one of eight hyper acute stroke units and one of the biggest and busiest of the eight heart attack centres in London.
It is also an accredited centre of excellence for trauma, neurology, cardiology, cancer and blood pressure services and is the national centre for family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases.
St George’s children’s services are rated outstanding by the CQC.
St George’s is the only hospital site in London where children with cancer can receive oncology surgery, PICU and neurosurgery as well as oncology care all on the same site with the other specialties that are required as well.
Of the 16 specialisms in paediatrics, St George’s offers all but three.
Every year St George’s treats over 130,000 children and deliver 5000 babies.
