Children in Hospital
In 1993 the Club decided to introduce a special fund to be used to make life easier for children in hospital in the Belfast area or in special care units with close ties to hospitals. The fund would be called Children in Hospital Appeal with proceeds from the Club's Montgomery Bowl. This is a Silver Rose Bowl - presented in 1934 by the family of Harford H. Montgomery, the second President of the Club, as a memorial to him which at each meeting was filled by one of the members with flowers, to be sent afterwards to a hospital or to a member or his wife who was ill. Council took this decision as, invariably in practice, hospital staff did not have the time to arrange the donated flowers in vases and in some wards they were not allowed at all, so when each member was asked to contribute they would instead be given the choice of sending flowers or making a donation to the Children in Hospital Appeal. However members are reminded that when there is an appropriate recipient for flowers, they should choose that option.
During the first year of the new system, half of the money was donated to the Appeal. Since then the amount donated has averaged round 90%. Contributions are channelled through our charitable Trust Fund to enable us to reclaim VAT and increase the size of the donated gifts.
Several donations to children in hospitals have been made carefully targeted at areas where it really does "make a difference" and it is difficult to explain just how much these gifts mean to the children. The most striking thing we have found is that while the hospitals are almost always excellent in providing purely medical care, they sometimes seem to overlook the more personal problems. They seem to be able to spend millions of pounds in certain areas but struggle and delay to find small amounts in others.
We express our very sincere thanks to all our members and hope that we can continue this work for many years.
Recent gifts are detailed below - click on images to enlarge.
£500 to the Children's Heartbeat Trust, a small local charity who provide practical, emotional and financial support to children with congenital heart disease. The Trust’s Fundraising Administrator, Victoria Jackson, accepted the cheque when she addressed the Club meeting Monday 19 March, noting they aim to ensure that families can access the best cardiac care possible be it when in the Children’s Heart Centre at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, travelling to London, Birmingham, Newcastle or Dublin for operations or back at home. Greatly thanking the Club for the donation, she stressed that they receive no government funding and heavily rely on the generosity of the public, local businesses and communities to help them fund their services for families.
No distributions were made in 2022
This year we made one contribution from this fund to the Children's Unit at Musgrave Park Hospital.
They had a rest room with no television set and were most grateful for the set we provided and it is taking pride of place in their day room being used regularly.
We also bought them some computer games which really do help the children to pass away the hours when many of them are confined to bed.
Our Children in Hospital Appeal’s contribution this year was to Fleming Fulton School.
£1000 was presented to complete the £2000 required to buy a “rolling road” exercise machine which was delivered to the Physio Department in February 2020.
The School are "over the moon" with the equipment which folds up and will mean so much to their patients. Of particular note is that it can be used together with the hoist (shown above it) so that previously wheelchair bound patients can now 'walk' and exercise their muscles.
The photograph shows Physios Alison Gilpin (far right), Elaine McConnell, other staff and managers and the other donors (2nd & 3rd right).
The Club provided a TV and a wide range of toys including DVD’s, Playstation 4 Consoles and games as that children confined to bed through their injuries are very hard to keep amused all day.
The unit manager wrote in her thank you letter: “The new TV in the playroom is proving to be very popular and the children are loving the new toys. Staff in the wards inform me what a huge help your gifts have been towards making the hospital stay a much better experience for our young people”.
£562.29 from the Montgomery Bowl was presented to Tor Bank School's Occupational Therapy Department in October 2017. Suzanne Mee, Occupational Therapist, displays the funded selection of special 'toys' and equipment specially chosen by them to Past President Brian Ferguson.
The toys are special remote control ones for disabled children and facilitate children, who cannot ordinarily do so, play with a toy and the steps in the foreground help teach children to climb and descend stairs and when upended becomes a see saw rocker! Thanking the Club for the donation, which they are delighted with, Suzanne stresses how important the purchased items will be to the development and enjoyment of the disabled children.
Our latest gifts from the Club's Children in Hospital fund were presented to the Beechcroft Children’s Unit at Forster Green Hospital. They were handed over to Jacquie Wilson, the Children's Service Manager, by Past President Brian Ferguson on Friday 15 December. This unit is chosen at Christmas because the children there are from disturbed backgrounds and don't get to know the meaning of a happy family Christmas.
Beechcroft were delighted with our gifts and the Unit Manager thanking for them stressed how important this type of equipment is to help them to keep the children occupied and happy during their long periods in the Unit: “The wards inform me what a huge help your gifts have been towards making Christmas a much better experience for our young people.”
In October 10 2016 24" TVs were presented to NI Children's Hospice for the children and families to use in the newly refurbished bedrooms. 
Special gifts were handed over to the Beechcroft Children's Unit at Forster Green Hospital for Christmas. This unit was chosen at Christmas because the children there are from disturbed backgrounds and as a result they don't get to know the meaning of a happy family Christmas. They included 2 X-Box Games Systems complete with games and two additional wireless controllers for extra players. We also gave them two Sony Music Centres that can accept CDs and practically any type of i-phone or i-pod. They were included in Santa's gifts when he visited and unloaded his sleigh.
The Head of the Unit Jackie Wilson and the Ward Sister Karen Coombes were delighted with our gifts and stressed how important this type of equipment was to help them to keep the children occupied and happy during their long periods in Beechcroft.
Three Apple I-Pad Mini 3's complete with protective cases and screen protectors were presented to The Ulster Hospital, Acute Child Health Department - Paediatric Outpatients/Rapid Response Unit. The ward sister in charge of the unit, Karen Orr, requesting them explained that the range of games now available on tablets can keep the children amused for hours and even the youngest patients are experts!
She advised that they will be invaluable in two main areas:
The Club also have provided Mitchell House School, Belfast with a special piece of outdoor play equipment designed for children with disabilities.
Special equipment for the Occupational Therapy Department at Tor Bank School
As on many previous occasions the requests never cease to surprise us. This time the main item was a Deluxe Steam (body) Roller. This equipment literally squeezes the child between four rollers. Research has shown that children who show "hyperactive" behaviour can be calmed by getting them to crawl through the rollers. The child then continues under a "weighted" blanket and ends up passing through a tunnel. We could fully understand how this trip served not only to exercise but also to calm the children down! In addition to the "Roller" and the "Blanket" the Club also provided a number of action games which are required to amuse the children while they await their turn on the main pieces of equipment. The staff at Tor Bank passed on their sincere thanks from all the children who benefit every day from the generosity of Club members.Musgrave Park Children's Physiotherapy Unit received specialised exercise equipment.
Some of the children the Physiotherapy Unit treats have, because of leg injuries, to spend an elongated time in bed. The physiotherapists find them unwilling to exercise and to encourage them they asked for special brightly coloured tricycles and a go-kart with full body supports and straps.
The Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit at Foster Green Hospital asked us for an X Box 360.
Opened in September 2010, the Unit, known as Beechcroft, provides specialist inpatient services for children and young people with mental health problems providing a therapeutic environment centred both on the young person and their family and promoting which enables a better understanding of how young people, with mental health problems, can be successfully treated and returned to living in the community.
Children's Trauma Unit in the Ulster Hospital requested children's posters and pictures
A request from the Children's Trauma Unit in the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald September 2011 was, as usual, something a bit different! This time it was a very interesting and comprehensive range of children's posters and pictures of everything from Disney characters to animal world maps.A Wii consul was requested by Tor Bank School at the Ulster Hospital.
Many of the children there cannot play the games that children love to play. Fortunately computers have come to the rescue and now enable children, when using a Wii Console, to literally 'play' games such as electronic tennis by controlling the "ball" from a hand held device. This technology really does give the participants the sensation of playing in a real game. These systems are extremely sophisticated and are not cheap but if you have any doubt about value for money, you need only to see the children's faces when they play on it.
Photograph shows a nurse in Tor Bank (with fun face-paint) showing a boy how to use a previously donated push light switch.
A single contribution to Heartbeat-NI - Heartbeat-NI, among other charities, supports the Clark Clinic at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. The clinic is the paediatric cardiac centre for Northern Ireland and our contribution of £1000 was used to help purchase an MRI Scanner for this unit. Heartbeat-NI undertook to raise a quarter of the one million pounds required to purchase this scanner. Three other charities will raise the balance and they all agreed on a time scale of one year!
Tor Bank School requested a resistance tunnel and a weighted blanket as used by the SAS for training. They advised that their little "troopers" took hours rather than seconds to complete the tests! We also bought them a special recumbent bicycle and an adjustable scooter board with support straps.
The Child & Family Unit, Forster Green, requested a number of handheld electronic games. We also supplied some table and playground games and a camera. (shown left)
A special exercise bicycle which can adjust to special slow speeds for the Physiotherapy Unit Musgrave Park.