Ahead of International Nurses Day on May 12 2022, we sat down with Louise Griew from Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity to hear about the incredible work the Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses do all over the UK.
You can support Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity with a one-off donation to our International Nurses Day Spotlight fund here.
Hi Louise, first things first, what's your role at Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity?
I’m the Chief Executive.
Which causes does the charity support and what sort of work do you do?
We provide specialist nurses and support for seriously ill children. There are currently 82 Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses caring for over 24,000 seriously ill children across the UK.
Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses are a vital lifeline to the children and their families, supporting them clinically and emotionally. We support children and young people affected by complex, lifelong illnesses that are under-funded and under-resourced, including epilepsy, rare diseases, sickle cell anaemia, and neuromuscular conditions.
What sort of things do you use donations for?
We use donations to fund Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses in partnership with the NHS. We also provide leadership training and professional development for our Roald Dahl Nurses, to improve the care and support they give.
We run innovation projects which support Roald Dahl Nurses to solve problems creatively, and to improve healthcare outcomes for children.
During Covid 19, we also launched our Marvellous Family Support Service which helps families of seriously ill children to access their benefit entitlements.
What have you worked on that you're most proud of?
We are very proud to have established the first paediatric epilepsy specialist nurse in 1992. Since then, we have established a further 81 specialist nurses and now have over 40 Roald Dahl Epilepsy Specialist Nurses across the UK.
What are the biggest challenges still to overcome?
We currently have 82 Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses supporting over 24,000 seriously ill children but we know there are more than 100,000 children with complex lifelong conditions, and we believe that every seriously ill child deserves a Roald Dahl Nurse.
Other than donating, what’s the one thing people can do to support the charity and its mission?
Please help us by raising awareness of the charity. Share information about our charity and Roald Dahl Nurses with friends, family, colleagues, employers, even your next-door neighbour’s cat!
Support Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity by downloading the Toucan app here - the charity will automatically be in your portfolio when you log in!
