Bristol Royal Hospital for Children

15/03/2026

Happy Mother’s Day! 🌷💛 Today (and always) is a great time to highlight all the marvellous Mum's we interact with every day! To bring some smiles to the Mum’s on our wards, we handed out some posies as a token and reminder of their bravery and care for their children.

A HUGE thank you to our wonderful supporters The Guild of Friends of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children who hand make posies every year for the mums to receive on Mothering Sunday – we are always so grateful. The Guild of Friends have supported the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children for many years and these posies are just one of the ways that they show their support. The charity also fundraises for much-needed equipment, arts and crafts kits and entertainment for our patients! 💛

A few of the wards received presents instead of flowers (due to ward policy) which were gifted by the lovely Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal. Another thank you is in order to them, who ensured that through their donation of gifts, that none of the mother’s in our hospital miss out. 🎁

One final Happy Mother’s Day from us - we hope you know how special you are to us all! ✨

13/03/2026

Yesterday we held a ‘Conversations Café’ in the reception of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children – this theme was all about sleep! 💤

We wanted to hear all about what sleep is like for you in the hospital if you’re a patient or family member/carer. We hope to use your ideas to make a big difference to the experience of families in our care. 📝

If you got involved, you probably chatted to our Conversations Program Lead, Lisa! Lisa has relayed to us how successful the day went and how grateful she is for all the feedback she received!! 🥰

But it’s not too late to contribute! If you’d like to share your thoughts with us, you can still email them to bchinfo@uhbw.nhs.uk no later than 20 March. We’d love to hear from you. 🗣

12/03/2026

Today is World Kidney Day – a great opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of kidney health. Every year, our Lighthouse Ward get involved and we’d love to share what they got up to today! 👇

Our small 9-bedded ward does huge things and helps so many of our patients every year. Since 2021, the team have completed an incredible 58 transplants at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. Now that’s certainly something to celebrate! ⭐

The day kicked off with their annual morning bake sale - we hope your day was sweeter with a nice treat to start it off! The Lighthouse team fundraised to support projects on Lighthouse - for example, a refurb of their teenage room to create a quiet space! They’ve also just had agreement for 2 home-therapy pumps to allow some of our nephrotic patients to receive therapy at home and reduce the frequency of their hospital admissions. This was done through our dedicated charity Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal. ✨

The team also looked fabulous in their yellow dress up! We love how the outfits get brighter every year! 💛

Finally, a big thank you to our hospital charity, The Grand Appeal, who are lighting up the Lollipop Be-Bop sculpture a glowing yellow colour this evening, in recognition and support of World Kidney Day. 💡

11/03/2026

Today is Young Carer’s Action Day! This day, organised by Carers Trust, is all about encouraging organisations, communities and individuals to take part in the day by taking action to support and raise awareness of young carers. 🗣

This year’s theme is ‘Fair Futures for Young Carers’ which is a call to ensure every young carer has the same chances to learn and grow as their peers. Carers Trust are will take this year to support young carers to reach their potential – whether that be recognition in school and access to employment. Also, meaningful breaks and well being supports. This is all to help encourage bright opportunities to encourage bright futures. 📝

For more information on what today is all about, feel free to click the following link: https://carers.org/young-carers-action-day/young-carers-action-day

08/03/2026

Happy 💙
Today we celebrate the incredible women working at Bristol NHS Group and across the .
Thank you for your dedication, compassion and impact - today and every day.

05/03/2026

It’s World Book Day! Our Play Team dressed up in wonderful Where’s Wally (that’s some alliteration for you!) costumes and also picked and posed with their favourite reads! 📚🔎📝

The jam-packed day started in our Activity Centre on Level 5 – we think the team look perfectly 'write' in their costumes this year! The centre also had a bunch of activities, a colouring competition and of course, the book stand! The team rotate the books on the stand to give patients and families new stories to read on a regular basis. 📙

Our Play Specialists were also on the wards working on some special art activities with our patients and families. We love seeing what they create; they should be really proud of 'themshelves'! 🎨

You also may have spotted a few posters around the hospital – we found some in the lifts and even one peeking in Bluebell Ward. How many stickers did you collect? ⭐

Thanks (as always) to our hardworking Play Team for bringing some fun to the hospital for World Book Day! We hope you 'take a leaf out of their book' today and get reading! ✨

04/03/2026

Today is World Obesity Day – so let’s talk about obesity! Our Weight Management Team have shared about their roles here in the hospital, the stigma’s and where to go for further support! 👇

‘Here at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, we have a specialist multi-disciplinary team who work with young people and their families to make lifestyle changes that help them to reach a healthier weight. We regularly see the hurtful impact of weight related stigma and blame directed towards children and parents. This can affect the psychological wellbeing of children and make talking about weight and concerns about their health more difficult. It can prevent many people from accessing the help they need. These conversations are crucial to being able to understand situations experienced by families and establish the best way to help them to work towards achieving their goals. Obesity is a complex mixture of social, lifestyle, health and emotional factors - genetic factors can sometimes play a role too.

Our relationship with food has and continues to change. We don't just eat when we are hungry, eating is an activity and an important part of our lives. Food is an important part of our social, cultural and religious experiences as well as a way to help manage uncomfortable feelings. Children who are managing the physical and emotional burden associated with living with obesity experience stigma in many ways. Children are often bullied, excluded and others can hold different expectations of them when compared with their peers.

Creating a culture where children and young people feel confident to talk and ask questions about their health including their body size and shape is important to reduce the associated stigma, increase body confidence and the likelihood of young people asking for help.

The use of language is important to ensure young people feel heard and not embarrassed to ask questions and parents feel confident in knowing how to reply.

Please click on this link for helpful tips on how to talk to your child about their health including their weight:https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/talking-to-your-child-about-weight-a-guide-for-parents-and-caregivers-of-children-aged-4-11-years/attachments/talking-to-children-about-weight-guide.pdf

If you feel you need help to support your child towards a healthier weight please make an appointment with your GP’

Thanks team! 🥰

04/03/2026

We’ve had loads of lovely feedback with this project (thank you!), but we could always do with some more. If you live in Weston but have had care here in the Bristol Royal for Children, we want to hear from you! 🥰👇

Please follow the link below (or refer to the original post) to access where you can give us your feedback on our services. You can be a child, young person or a parent/carer to take part. 🗣️

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=dlg22ethzEunZJFACjBCc8bxj7_3kXNNoJ_jVMG6P75UMzcyVjZKV0wxUDBHV01RQjNZMkYwU0JaSi4u&route=shorturl

Do you live in Weston but have visited us in the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children? If the answer is yes, we want to hear your experiences! 👇

We believe that your voice matters. Whether you’re a child, young person, parent or carer, your feedback helps shape our future plans and inform our decisions going forward. 🗣

If you live in Weston but have come to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children for care and appointments (emergency, appointments, treatment etc), we want to know what you need, what already works well and what changes you’d like to see happen. We’d love for you to follow the QR Code on the poster or the link below to get in touch.

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=dlg22ethzEunZJFACjBCc8bxj7_3kXNNoJ_jVMG6P75UMzcyVjZKV0wxUDBHV01RQjNZMkYwU0JaSi4u&route=shorturl

03/03/2026

Welcome to our first Cafe of 2026 - tell us about your sleep! Join us in the reception of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children on the 12th March 2026 from 10.30am to 3.30pm! All are welcome! 🥰👇

We know through valuable feedback from you that sleeping in hospital can be tricky for patients and families. In our ‘Café’, we want to talk in more detail about what the problems are, what might help and share some of our ideas to get your opinions. 🗣

It will only take a few minutes (although you're welcome to stay longer if you’d like!) but your ideas may help us make a big difference to the experience of families in our care. Ooh - and we've got a few giveaway goodies too! 📝

If you can't make it but would still like to share your thoughts, please email bchinfo@uhbw.nhs.uk using the title Sleep Project by midnight on 29 March - we'd love to hear from you! 👂

02/03/2026

Not long left to sign up! The team are really looking forward to seeing those who have already confirmed their spot - don't forget to do yours! 💜

This evening has proven to be such a success in the past - the perfect opportunity to ask all your questions about transition and what that means for your/your child's care to professionals and those involved. 🗣️

Please refer to the sign-up link in the caption of the original post which we've linked here. 👇

We hope to see you there!

Transition is the process that prepares young people with congenital heart disease for the transfer from paediatric to adult care - allowing them to take more ownership for their health condition. ♥

The Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) are running an evening for young people over the age of 15 with congenital heart disease, to allow them to meet the team involved in their adult side care and familiarise themselves with the BHI before they transfer over. It gives young people AND their families a chance to address any questions or worries they may have about leaving their paediatric team and transferring to a whole new one.

To register, please refer to the flyer or link below! 👇

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=dlg22ethzEunZJFACjBCc8FrCy_eS1JMn52qOFpX7IpURVIwV0hTMVUxOUo5VUFGRlg2UDlTSzlBMC4u&route=shorturl

01/03/2026

Today is National Glanzmann’s Thrombasthenia Awareness Day! Thank you so much to superstar Oliver for sharing just part of his brave story with us. 👇

“My name is Oliver and I am 15 years old. When I was born, I was a bit different from the other babies - when I kicked my legs, I bruised and even turning over in my cot would end up in me bruising my body. When I was three months old, I had a massive nosebleed which wouldn’t stop, so my mum and dad had to take me to the hospital. By the time I got there I had bled through two towels. I also had a rash all over my body. The doctors thought I might have meningitis, but we found out that the rash was called Petechia. After a week in hospital, I was sent to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children so they could tell me what was wrong with me. Mum and Dad were told I had GT (Glanzmann Thrombasthenia).

GT is a very rare bleeding disorder and we were told I was the only child in the South West to have it! I am the only child treated for it at BRHC. GT is a platelet disorder; I have platelets but they don’t work properly like everyone else’s, so I bleed a lot and I bruise very easily.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time in hospital because of my bleeding disorder. I have been taken to hospital many times in an ambulance, and I have been in intensive care. Whenever I have bad bleeds, I am treated by either blood transfusions or platelet transfusions. I have had my nose cauterised many times over the years which helps initially, but then I go back to having heavy nosebleeds again. Two years ago, I had a very bad nosebleed and I had to be taken to hospital in the Air Ambulance. I was very ill, and I spent nearly three weeks in hospital. When I was in hospital, I was told that I could have a portacath fitted and have weekly platelet transfusions to stop me bleeding regularly and that hopefully I would have a better quality of life. A portacath is a device fitted under the skin used to draw blood and give treatments such as blood transfusions and antibiotics. I decided to have it done so now every Thursday I go into hospital to have a transfusion. I have to have washed HLA platelets because I had a couple of allergic reactions to the HLA matched platelets I was having before.

Having GT hasn’t stopped me from doing things, growing up my mum and dad let me do everything that my friends were doing, but I didn’t always have the energy to do it. I play for my town football team and the school football team. I love scootering and riding my bike, I just do it with a few more bruises and bumps than my friends...but I don’t let that stop me!’

https://platelets.blood.co.uk/
https://www.blood.co.uk/

27/02/2026

‘It’s never too late to meet our hero’s!

On the 23rd of October we visited the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children to give a special thank you to our son Henry’s surgeon, Massimo Caputo, who performed heart surgery on our son 15 years ago! It was a very emotional visit - walking back through the doors we walked out of all those years ago, and at the time with a 4 week-old baby who had just undergone corrective heart surgery. It brought back so many memories of us when we were 2 very nervous young first-time parents.

It was incredible to finally meet his surgeon and shake his hands - the same hands that fixed our son Henry. He will never know how grateful we are. ❤️

Henry handed him a card that had a personal message inside for him and a photo of Henry as a baby and of him now.

Henry has autism and is non-verbal and he can be very nervous around people he doesn’t know. But he was the first to walk into the room and sit down. He listened to me and my husband talk to Massimo, he knew exactly why we were there. Henry must of felt such comfort and connection just being there as we noticed that he sat there wonderfully the whole time!

Why wait 15 years? Well, we agreed we wanted to wait until Henry was at an age where he could understand and say thanks himself, even though he couldn’t verbally I could see it in his eyes and feel it in the room.’

What a wonderful day! Mr Caputo is a wonderful member of the hospital, and we are so pleased to hear of such a great experience. We wish Henry and his family a healthy and prosperous future!