Bursledon House is part of the Child Health Directorate for Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, however it is a self contained unit situated on the Tremona Road side of the General Hospital site. Radio Lollipop, Southampton had speakers installed into Bursledon House a couple of years ago, however until recently has not been able to provide a regular visit to the unit.

The Thursday Night Crew, headed up by Chairman, Steve Read have now made visits to Bursledon House a priority and this has been a great success with the children, young adults, staff and volunteers alike. Thursday night volunteer, Darryl Boothroyd very kindly volunteered to find some activities and competitions for the teenagers and young adults.

Following his chats with the teenagers over at BH on the Thursday nights, Darryl came up with a competition idea. He ran a competition over a period, where the patients created a list of their favourite 10 or 20 songs that would make their perfect CD compilation and they also designed a CD cover. The winner would then have their CD cover produced then presented in a display case to them as their prize. The competition was run over 3 weeks and was a great success.

There were some fantastic entries, however the winner, chosen by Darryl, was 14 year old Natalie Green. Darryl said, “Nathalie’s was the most original. A lot of effort went into the cover design and I especially liked the way she depicted the Black Eyed Peas…very creative. Her favourite band on the album was the Black Eyed Peas”.

Rob and Rachel Cleverley, who live in Sholing in Southampton, are regular and valuable supporters of Radio Lollipop in Southampton.

Visitors to Rob and Rachel’s were treated to a spectacular display featuring 10,000 light bulbs on the opening night of their display of Christmas lights, which raised funds to help the work of Radio Lollipop. This is in addition to the money raised through and an open weekend for visitors to see the model village in their garden in August 2003.

Rob works at the Ford Transit Van Factory at Swaythling, just outside Southampton and we have previously benefited from their generosity with a £1000 donation from Ford.

The latest donation came from the Ford Sports and Social Club and cheques totalling £800 were handed over by Rob to our Monday Night Crew.

Every spring, the Hospital Broadcasting Association (HBA) hosts its annual Hospital Radio Awards. These awards showcase the ‘best bits’ from hospital radio stations around the UK.

For the first time, stations were invited to submit entries for a new category entitled ‘Best Childrens’ Programme’ – sponsored by CBBC, the Children’s division of the BBC. The rules were simple: ‘submit a 10 minute compilation of your programme output designed especially for the younger listener. The programme can include as many presenters as are involved, as the judges are looking at the content of the show and how it is put over to the listener’. The Glasgow team were happy to recieve notification that they had been ‘Highly Commended’ for their efforts, and recieved a cheque for £25 and a certificate of achievement.

The award was presented by Rhani Khanijau (left) and Barney Harwood (right) from the CBBC Channel, Unfortunately, no-one from the Glasgow team could be in attendence, so John Murray from Glasgow’s ‘Victoria Radio Network’ received the award on our behalf.

John Watson, Deputy Chief Executive of the HBA will officially present the the award later in the month.

The Radio Lollipop Easter Bunny, Eggy hopped all the way from his cosy burrow in the Royal Victoria Country Park at Netley Abbey to visit Piam Brown, E1 and Children’s Neuro Wards on Monday 5th April. After a large bowl of carrots and a good night’s sleep in the Radio Lollipop Studio, he visited the G-Level Children’s Wards on Tuesday 6th April.

The rest of Tuesday evening was spent watching Bugs Bunny videos and then he rested in preparation for his final night of visiting on Wednesday 7th April, when he dodged the April showers and made it across to Bursledon House.

During the 3 nights, he gave out Easter Eggs and some non-edible goodies to those not allowed chocolate and bought many smiles to children, young adults, parents, visitors and staff alike.

The idea came from Thursday night volunteer, Winston Crosby and with just a change of theme, had the same success as our Christmas Ward Parties.

Thank you to Winston and all the volunteers involved in bringing some Easter smiles and entertainment to the patients in the Children’s Wards at Southampton General. The good work and focus of Radio Lollipop, Southampton was rewarded by a simple sentence from one parent:
“You have made my child’s day”.