Growing Our Giggle Doctor Family

We’re very excited to welcome a new team of Giggle Doctors to the Theodora family! They were selected from over 150 applicants to join our current team of 24 Giggle Doctors.

The new Giggle Doctors will now complete a one-year comprehensive training programme which covers everything from infection control to the impact of illness on the family.  Trainees will also shadow experienced Giggle Doctors on visits to help them learn the practicalities of being a Giggle Doctor. The job of a Giggle Doctor is highly skilled and the training is designed to prepare our trainees for their new role and ensure a high level of professionalism.

Being a Giggle Doctor is such a unique and wonderful job but it takes someone very special to be able to do the role. It is not just about being funny or telling jokes. A Giggle Doctor is someone who is sensitive, able to improvise and has the ability to put the child at the centre of what they do.

Our Programme Manager, Louise, said: ‘We were overwhelmed with the number of applications and are extremely excited about all the new Giggle Doctors and the artistic talents and passion they will bring to the team!’.

We’re hugely grateful to GlaxoSmithKline, the Postcode Community Trust (funded by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery), the Headley Foundation, the Sir Jules Thorn Trust and the 29th May 1961 Trust for enabling us to be able to do this.

In addition to growing the Theodora family, we are also growing the number of children our Giggle Doctors are visiting. This October we’ll be increasing Giggle Doctor visits at Evelina London Children’s Hospital from one Giggle Doctor a week to two. This means our Giggle Doctors will be doubling the number of children we visit at the hospital to over 2,400!

With lots of new Giggle Doctors in the team we will be able to visit even more children and hope to be able to expand in to more hospitals once their training is complete.

We’ll be sharing lots of updates about our new trainees on our website and social media over the coming months.