Lily’s Story
Below is a story from Emilie, who would like to share her daughter, Lily’s experience at the Highland Children’s Unit.
In summer of 2023, Lily was told she would need to spend some time in hospital, which resulted in a one-week stay at the Highland Children’s Unit at Inverness’ Raigmore Hospital. Emilie explains that Lily was apprehensive before this visit – “The thought of going into hospital can be so scary for a young person and their family. However, Lily felt so welcomed and she loved being in the Highland Children’s Unit. In fact, she didn’t want to leave.”
Creating child friendly clinical environments is one of the core pillars of support which The Archie Foundation delivers. Archie’s support in the Highlands began in 2011, with a fundraising appeal that aimed to raise £2million to help fund the build of a dedicated children’s unit at Raigmore. Highland Children’s Unit (HCU) was carefully designed with cheerful and colourful decoration, structural improvement and its own designated entrance. HCU has seen thousands of children pass through its doors since it opened in 2016. The child-friendly facilities within include an outdoor play area and indoor playroom, which Emilie couldn’t fault. Finishing touches like these would not have been possible without The Archie Foundation and they are key in ensuring the Unit is as welcoming as possible for young patients who visit, and are areas which both Emilie and Lily found especially beneficial during their time at HCU.
Emilie couldn’t speak more highly of the attentive staff who cared for Lily and highlighted their efforts to keep the young patients as active as possible. “The highlight of Lily’s stay was the Play Team, who were just incredible. They spent so much time with Lily and made a lot of effort. The Play Team were an essential part in Lily having such a positive experience in hospital, and provided her with some normality, fun, and a release from what she was in hospital for”.
The Archie Foundation are proud to support the Play Team in a number of ways, including providing funding to support their training and development. NHS Highland recently approached the charity to help fund Health Play training for two members of staff to allow them to become fully accredited Play Specialists. This training is not regarded as core for the NHS, and as The Archie Foundation is all about making the difference in healthcare for young patients, the charity was quick to support. By enabling their studies, Archie has played a key part in elevating the Play provision in the Highlands, protecting this service for the future, and maintaining the standard as a profession.
When her treatment ended and Lily got ready to go home, she was advised to take up walking as a bit of a distraction and focus for her. Her GP suggested she tie this in with a fundraising challenge, as inviting her friends and family to sponsor her would help to keep her motivated, and that is exactly what she did! “Lily decided to take on a virtual challenge for motivation, knowing that she would benefit from walking, and others would benefit from the donations this would generate. In this case, Lily wanted to help someone who has helped her, so, after her stay at HCU, she chose The Archie Foundation.”
Lily set herself the challenge of walking the distance from her hometown in the Highlands to Edinburgh. Starting on the 8th of August 2023, Lily completed her incredible 158-mile challenge on the 16th of September 2023. She hit amazing milestones throughout her journey and in one week alone she covered 33.75 miles – incredible! Lily’s inspiring determination to take on, and complete, her challenge saw her raise an amazing sum of £260 for The Archie Foundation. Thank you, Lily!
“Fundraising gave Lily a sense of achievement, and a buzz, knowing what she was doing would have positive outcomes for both herself, and others. Should Lily have to visit or stay in the HCU again, neither of us would feel anxious about this due to the friendly, warm, and child-friendly environment.”
