Supporting Mental Health Awareness Week

Alder Hey Children's Charity is an incredible organisation that hosts many events to help make Alder Hey Children's Hospital a truly world-class, patient-friendly hospital for the 330,000 patients and families they care for every year.

We are proud to have them as one of our fantastic partners, with a Hospital and A&E; activity at KidZania London where kids can work as part of the emergency services team, perform surgical procedures, attend to patients and keep the KidZanian community happy and healthy!

As part of Children's Mental Health Awareness Week, we supported Alder Hey and their #MillionMiles event with the aim of them raising £3 million by 2022, to build a brand new home for their inpatients and community mental health services. They even had Tommy Fury joining their campaign...

“Exercise is proven to benefit mental health, so what better way to support young people who need access to proper mental health services than to walk, run, cycle or swim and help Alder Hey to reach a collective million miles for children’s mental health by 2022. It’s easy to do your bit, whether that’s a little at a time, day by day, or by setting yourself amazing challenges like doing a marathon, it all adds up!”

What fun did we get up to?

We supported Alder Hey to raise awareness of good mental health for children and young people, with a very special art competition inspired by nature! Connecting with nature can make us feel happier, improve our self-esteem and reduce stress and anxiety. Fresh air can help us to feel calm and playing outside with friends is a great way to stay fit and healthy. 

What did our competition involve? We asked children to produce some fantastic artwork, with the winner's being displayed in the waiting room at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in KidZania! As the theme was 'connecting with nature', we encouraged children to be as creative as possible, thinking about their favourite thing about nature and being outdoors.

The top 3 pieces of work were chosen by Carl Dutton, one of their fantastic Mental Health Practitioners, and Alder Hey super-surgeon Mr Iain Hennessey, who you may recognise if you’ve visited KidZania London.

As well as having their artwork placed in the waiting room of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital activity at KidZania London, the winner also received a family ticket to visit KidZania! What's more, the top three finalists received an Oli, Elli or Ali soft toy from Alder Hey Hospital!

Becky Parsons from Alder Hey Children’s Charity said “This has been a fantastic art competition and we were delighted to work with KidZania London to inspire so many young artists. Getting creative is a wonderful way of promoting good mental wellbeing. We’ve been blown away by the entries, all of which captured the brief beautifully.”

Introducing our winner...Isabella!

Isabella, aged 9, was chosen our winner with her beautiful artwork displayed on the right. She was over the moon to have won and is excited to have her artwork displayed at KidZania!

Iain Hennessey, Alder Hey super-surgeon said "I really like Isabella's as it got me thinking about how much change and movement we have as we go through life. Losing your leaves doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing"

Souhila, Alder Hey's Innovation Operational Manager, who works closely with Iain Hennessey commented “We like the use of different techniques and real leaves to portray the different seasons. It also looks like it's part of Alder Hey in the park”

Carl, one of their amazing Mental Health Practitioners commented "All the pictures entered for this competition showed how important nature is to our mental health and wellbeing. From observing it, being in it, and doing activities in it. Many of the pictures which include our winners had trees and of course our hospital is named after a tree, namely the Alder. Looking at all the pictures has reminded me how important nature is in promoting and maintaining our mental health."