Rockinghorse Children’s Charity hosts event at One Garden to thank supporters

On a sunny afternoon at One Garden in Stanmer Park, Rockinghorse welcomed a hundred guests to an event to thank them for their continued support.

Every year Rockinghorse is supported by so many different people within the community – from individual donors to large businesses and from families to Trusts. Every single bit of support makes a huge difference to the charity’s work.

As a way of saying thank you for all this continued help, it invited around 100 people to an afternoon of information about their work, networking and lunch.

Under the stretch tent on the lawns, every guest was greeted by Rockinghorse staff, given a Posh Totty designed Rockinghorse supporter badge and a welcome drink before hearing from a panel of specially invited guests who talked about their link with the charity.

Donna Holland, Rockinghorse CEO, started by welcoming everyone, saying: “Today’s event gives us the invaluable chance to connect incredible people like you in this room to what is needed in the hospital. And we can do this because we work alongside doctors and nurses to ensure that children in Sussex get the best possible care and support when they are unwell.”

Prof. Somnath Mukhopadhyay, Chair of Paediatrics and Precision Medicine Lead at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, was the first speaker, talking about the world’s first precision medicine clinic for children with asthma that Rockinghorse funded at the children’s hospital. He was followed by Hannah Fraser-James and Maylia Mogal, Nurse Manager and Senior Sister at the Trevor Mann Baby Unit, who talked about parent rooms within the unit that the charity funded to be refurbished and what a valuable resource these are for families at the hospital.

Dr Dan Yusef, Consultant Paediatrician at the Alex spoke movingly about the importance of the Rockinghorse-funded Youth Worker within the Emergency Department at the Alex and the difference this service makes to so many young people struggling with their mental health and physical safety.

Hannah Peckham shared her experience of the care that she and her son, Bodhi, receive at the Alex during Bodhi’s treatment for Leukaemia and the impact this has on their hospital experience, followed by Josh Braid who talked about why he chose to fundraise for Rockinghorse by undertaking an epic expedition to the South Pole, dragging a rockinghorse all the way!

And finally, Paul Peacock, Youth Worker at Worthing and Chichester Hospitals, explained how the refurbished teenage room at Chichester Hospital, funded by Rockinghorse, helps him to work with young people in a calm, friendly space, enabling him to offer the best possible support to his clients.

In the past year, Rockinghorse has funded and delivered 76 projects and all their amazing supporters are an integral part of this achievement.

These projects include the Paediatric Oncology Psychologist who supports children and their families dealing with cancer, a youth worker in the Children’s A&E who supports children in mental health crisis, a range of toys programmes for pain distraction and condition management support, equipment projects that bring cutting edge technology into the hospital and engaging and inspiring spaces including teenage room refurbishments, rooms for parents in the hospital and spaces in A&E to help children get the very best treatment.

Donna added: “We really couldn’t do everything that we do for babies, children and their families, without our wonderful supporters. Their help means that we can make the difference to so many people, often at the hardest points in their lives, so we are incredibly grateful to everyone who came along today and to everyone who continues to support us throughout Sussex.”

You can find out more about the projects and the work that the charity does on its website at www.rockinghorse.org.uk