Posts Tagged "Great Ormond Street Hospital"

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 20, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

For those of you in the UK, you’re probably well aware of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.  For those of you who don’t know about Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), here’s a little information about it:

Great Ormond Street Hospital is full of remarkable children whose bravery touches everyone.

As one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, with our supporters, we help keep the magic alive for children who need our help.

The hospital sees over 200,000 patient visits every year, and is often the only place of hope and expertise for children with complex and life-threatening illnesses.

The Hospital for Sick Children first opened it doors at 49 Great Ormond Street on Valentine’s Day, 1852, with ten beds. Dr Charles West was the driving force behind its opening, driven by the shockingly high level of infant mortality in the capital.

The first in-patient was Eliza Armstrong from Lisson Grove, suffering from Phthisis & Bronchitis. The first child admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital as an out-patient was two-year-old George Parr, who had catarrh and diarrhoea – not serious by today’s standards, but this was a time when one third of children born in London died before adulthood.

When I was working in Peoria, Illinois in the US I was very involved with fundraising for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital so it’s particularly important to me, now that I live here in the UK, to support other Children’s Hospitals when I can.  One of my fellow bloggers, Emily at Brits in Bosnia, contacted several blogger to ask for their support of the latest charity appeal for GOSH.  The X-Factor contestants have released a charity single, Michael Jackson’s “You are Not Alone” for this year’s appeal.  I watched the show last Sunday when they performed (albeit lip-synched) the new single and it is very good…but then again, I quite liked the original as well.  You can download the X-Factor single “You are not Alone” HERE as well as watch the video HERE.  The real star of Sunday night’s X-Factor show was Oscar, a very brave young lad who’s had an extremely difficult young life.  See more about Oscar HERE…you’ll be very moved by his story.

Oscar and his Family

Having Little Miss in our lives now brings home how important it is to have quality care for children who are ill.  Hopefully we will never need the services of Great Ormond Street Hospital but, God forbid, if we do, it’s reassuring to know they are there.  Please support the cause of Great Ormond Street Hospital by downloading the X-Factor single.  Thank you for your support.