June was Play Services co-ordinator for the Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust before a period of ill health led her to decide to take early retirement.  She had been in the NHS since January 1993 when she joined Hammersmith Hospital as a trainee Hospital Play Specialist moving to St. Peter’s when she qualified as an HPS in July the same year.  As the children’s service and children’s wards expanded over the years so did the work of June and her team.

Said June: “Play is our work.  We try to encourage the normal progress of children by using “play” as a developmental aid at all ages from six months to 17 years.  We know that play speeds recovery and we plan and implement specific therapeutic play programmes for each child. We aim to help reduce the child’s possible fear of hospital, lessen any pain or anxiety and meet their play needs.  The playroom should be an ideal environment to promote a secure and trusting relationship for the child, their family and those involved in their care.”

A major part of the work is to prepare children for surgical and medical procedure.  This is done in a variety of ways and June introduced a regular Saturday morning pre-admission club where youngsters and their families could visit the operating theatre block, see the anaesthetics room and “play” with the equipment like the fruit-smelling oxygen mask before going to the recovery room to see where they will wake up.

June has also been very involved in fundraising and providing new play equipment for the young patients. Many local companies and organisations including the Feltham Prison and Young Offenders Institute; the Woking-based Surrey Youth Offending Team and Proctor & Gamble, and the Walton Conservative Club have all been regular supporters.

Said June: “So many people and organisations have been extremely generous over the years.  We have consistently received support, particularly when we were setting up the “Little Oaks Shared Oncology Unit” in 2004 and I would like to thank everyone who has helped us, however large or small their gift.

“All of this work was to help children and their parents to have a much better experience while in hospital and I was lucky to be bale to help facilitate this.”

One of the highlights for young, chronically ill patients and their brothers and sisters, was the annual Black Cab outing to Thorpe Park or Legoland.  June’s husband, Chris and a convoy of about 25 decorated Hackney Cabs would take the youngsters, each with a volunteer adult, out for the a day.

June and Chris, daughter Louise and her partner have now moved from Sidney Road, Walton to Oxfordshire to be nearer their daughter Carol, her husband and two grandsons.