Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, 1345 Govan Road, Glasgow (2026)

30/12/2025

Mum Ashley is delighted to celebrate Christmas at home with her son Joey this year, after the creation of his stoma that has changed his life.

Joey, now eight, has been a patient of the Royal Hospital for Children since birth, with many different hospital teams involved in his care.

Ashley has kindly shared their story for the festive season.

“Joey was born with the conditions Pierre Robin Sequence and Stickler Syndrome. He was transferred to Glasgow, and was on oxygen, NG-fed, and given an NPA airway.

“When Joey was five months old, they put a peg into him and he still wasn’t progressing. At around 13 months, he had his jaw surgery to bring the jaw forward to make the airway wider.

“He’d been aspirating all his feeds and needed his stomach tied shut. His cleft palate needed repaired, which took two attempts.

“During this time, he had a look of problems with his bowels which were hard to get to the bottom of. We were in and out of theatre quite a lot.

“Joey had a stoma formed in September 2024, then had a prolapse of the bowel in January. He was rushed in for emergency surgery and needed 40cm removed from the bowel. He woke up from that and was fine – everyone was amazed!

“All the procedures and operations he’s had have helped him, but the stoma has changed his life.

“We have benefited from Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity and other organisations. He’s been to the MediCinema, met the Celtic team and all the characters, and the Clown Doctors too. That all makes our stays much easier.

“Louise Paterson, Stoma Clinical Nurse Specialist, has been a huge help to me. She’s brilliant, and made it all so much easier. The cleft team were also amazing, so a huge thank you to them as well as the gastro and surgical teams.

“If it wasn’t for everyone at the hospital, he wouldn’t be as healthy as he is now. This is the first Christmas he’s able to really be a wean. Recently, we’ve only been in twice – both times just for bugs, which is totally normal. He has loads of energy and is running around like a wee boy should, and it’s going to be so special.”

28/12/2025

"This is my son Lyle. Lyle was born with congenital heart defects: DORV, or double outlet right ventricle, and TGA - transposition of the great arteries.

"Lyle was born in September 2021 and spent a long time in NICU, PICU and Ward 1E. We finally got to have Lyle home on December 23rd of 2021, just before Christmas.

"We are so grateful to all of the staff in the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow - without them we dread to think what the outcome would have been.

"Lyle is now a very happy four year old boy who will need ongoing care for the rest of his life but he’s doing amazing thanks to the amazing staff in the hospital, we wish them all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ❤️"

27/12/2025

The ones behind the magic 💜

Thank you so much to Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity for all of your hard work making Christmas magical for our young patients.

The festive period is only a small part of their work, however. The Charity Hub is a vital space for our hospital community, their volunteers provide countless hours of invaluable service, and their help with Play and Events is a year-round commitment to spreading smiles.

We can't thank you all enough - and we hope everyone at the charity has a lovely Christmas 🎄

26/12/2025

💗 These amazing members of the Play Team were definitely all on Santa's nice list this year for helping our young patients play and create special memories even while in hospital.

Their work is a year-round effort, but the support of the Play Team is deeply appreciated at this time of year by our families who have to spend time in hospital over the festive season.

Pictured are just some of the amazing Play Team - drop a festive message below for them to read!

25/12/2025

Thank you so much to our wonderful Radio Lollipop Glasgow volunteers spending time with children in hospital today 🎄

25/12/2025

🎄 Wishing all of our patients, families, and staff a very Merry Christmas.

A huge thank you, also, to all the staff continuing to look after our young patients today and through the festive period.

From our hospital family to yours, we hope you have a day filled of fun, laughter and happiness. 💙

📸: The Advent Calendar display created by our Play Team and young patients

24/12/2025

🎅🏻 A message from the man himself this Christmas Eve.

Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity 💜

23/12/2025

Congratulations to all the Deck the Halls winners, and a big thank you to Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity and every department, both here and across Greater Glasgow and Clyde, for making our hospitals sparkle with festive joy ❄️🎄

22/12/2025

"My little girl Astrid has spent over 10 weeks of her life in the hospital. She's had two surgeries on her eyes to remove her cataracts, which allowed her to see.

"I will forever be grateful to them and ward 3B for looking after her during her recovery.

"In July I handed her over for her biggest surgery, open heart surgery, for a complete AVSD repair and the entire team who worked in that theatre with her are the real superheroes and I can never thank them enough for saving my baby.

"She spent three weeks in PICU again with the most incredible team working with her who looked after her if she was one of theirs and were the biggest support to me throughout her stay ❤️.

"I can never say thank you enough - you don't know how incredible you all are. Astrid spent her last week of recovery in the cardiology ward, and again they were great.

"The hospital has been incredible from the ophthalmology department to the cardiology department and everyone who has worked with Astrid are amazing and would like to say thank you even though it will never be enough."

Thank you so much to Astrid's Mum for sharing her story- we hope you have a lovely and restful Christmas. 🎄

21/12/2025

😇 This Christmas, Rory got to star as the angel of his school’s nativity – thanks to the incredible care of teams at the Royal Hospital for Children.

Rory and his family have benefited from the help of so many of our hospital heroes – from the team that operated on a wound on his head, to the Play Team that helped him make his own angel, which now sits proudly atop the family tree at home.

His Mum, Natalie, has generously shared Rory’s story this Christmas.

“My son is called Rory and he is five. He likes Minecraft, swimming and playing with his friends. He has a big sister, Phoebe who is 10. He started P1 in August and loves school.

“Rory was born with a 5p piece sized lesion in his head because the skin didn’t join together properly in the womb.

“After a CT scan when he was two, they discovered that it was only skin deep and so they would leave it until he was older before anything needed to be done about it. It started becoming itchy and a bit sore at times so it was decided that he would be operated on to remove the lesion and glue it back together.

“Rory had his operation on the 5th of November and was fine. A week later, an abscess popped out of the wound when he put on his school jumper. He had two weeks of antibiotics and was fine. A week after that, he was at swimming lessons and put on his goggles. This caused another abscess to pop out.

“We were advised to go straight to the Royal Hospital for Children, and he was operated on the next day to clean the wound out. He is perfectly fine now and was back at school just in time to do his part in the nativity. He was the angel paper boy.

“I felt informed, everything was well organised, and everyone was really caring and very kind towards us. They were reassuring and distracted me. Real people who cared.

“The Play Team kept Rory entertained. They gave him arts and crafts to play with and brought him some games along. He also helped colour in for the display boards. They really helped me the day that Rory had a failed canula. He loved the activities, and his wee angel is on our tree that he made in the hospital. The staff were just excellent, and I’m forever grateful for that.

“He had a visit from the professional basketball team as well and he enjoyed saying his line from the nativity to them - as we thought he might miss his actual one.

“Being at home with everyone healthy means everything. Rory is hoping to get a bike, a Minecraft plushie and a Nerf bow and arrow for Christmas.”

19/12/2025

Meet Lily 🤗 🎄

Five-year-old Lily is looking forward to Christmas at home with her big brother and big sister. She’s been cared for by RHC staff since birth, including the removal of a tumour weighing over a kilogram on her second day of life.

Now with a “new lease of life” thanks to incredible multidisciplinary care, Lily is looking forward to her best Christmas yet, as Mum Nikki tells her story.

“Lily was transferred straight away to the NICU at birth, where she initially spent six weeks. She has two older siblings: her brother Owen, 8, and her big sister Ellie, 12.

“At birth, Lily was born with a type four SCT tumour, which weighed over 1kg. A nine-and-a-half hour operation to remove the tumour took place on her second day of life.

“She was discharged, then home for around two weeks – though she was back and forth in Forth Valley. At eight weeks, she was blue-lit back through to Glasgow, where she spent another week and had another important surgery.

“Lily is catheterised and the tumour damaged her bowel, bladder and kidneys. There’s uncertainty around nerve and muscle damage, about which we will find out more as she gets older.

“Despite it all, Lily started to crawl around a year old, and at two years old began walking. She’s had four operations including that surgery at birth.

“I could not fault anyone involved in Lily’s care, especially at the start. The nurses, the consultants, the surgeons, everyone has been fantastic. Then there’s the Charity and the Play Team, the amount of things they’ve done. Teri from the Play Team has been fantastic with all the family.

“I could thank everyone involved, but I have to especially thank her surgeon who saved her life at the beginning, Mr Jacovides; the surgeon at eight weeks, Mr Sabharwal; and just recently Alison Campbell for giving Lily the colostomy bag that’s given her a much brighter future.

“Christmas is often a difficult time. Lily would often be well, but not well enough to really enjoy it. This year will be even more special as she has that new lease of life and won’t let anything stop her. Being able to spend it at home is the most amazing thing.”

18/12/2025

🎅 It's soon going to be time for Santa to take to his sleigh and deliver everyone's presents.

Before that, however, he took the time to call round the wards and virtually visit young patients in the children's hospital!

The boys and girls received special gifts from Mr Claus, and got to tell him what they'd like under their tree this year.

A huge thank you to the Play Team and our special elves at Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity who made the virtual visits happen.

Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow

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