How the Giggle Doctors helped Kristie

Right at the beginning of the summer holidays, 9-year old Kristie broke her femur. Her mum Alison told us, “It was a very traumatic experience for her – she had surgery at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton and had to spend 10 days in hospital.”

Kristie and her mum and dad were all rather shocked when Dr Fancy Pants, wearing her usual inflatable flamingo, poked her head around the curtain, followed by Dr Easy Peasy.

Naturally, silliness ensued: “My favourite things were that they made me a balloon animal, their bubble camera that made lots of bubbles everywhere, and the hide and seek was really funny!” Kristie told us.

Her mum agreed, “it was such an amazingly positive experience for my daughter. After everything she’d been through it was lovely to see her proper belly laughing with them and have a brief time totally forgetting the accident.”

How a child feels about hospital can really impact how quickly they recover physically. We asked Kristie how she felt about her visit from the Giggle Doctors, and she said:

“They made me feel a lot happier and made me laugh a lot!”

Dr Fancy Pants and Dr Easy Peasy only spent a few minutes with Kristie, but thanks to her mum, we know the effect lasted a long time – in fact it’s still working!

“Since meeting them the only thing she ever mentions about our 10-day stay in hospital was meeting them! She returned to school and even told her whole class when asked to name the best thing that happened in the summer holidays, that for her it was actually being in hospital and seeing them! After going through so much it is amazing that their work has had such a huge and positive affect on her and for that I am so very grateful.”

Since she got on with them so well, we asked Kristie if she’d like us to pass on a message to Dr Fancy Pants and Dr Easy Peasy, and she said:

“Can you tell them they are the best part of hospital, and they are the funniest people I ever met.”