Radio Lollipop is a

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

providing a care, comfort, play and entertainment service for children in

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

. It organizes Volunteer Playmakers to spend time with children in wards or in special play areas, taking its name from the radio stations it runs in hospitals playing children's programming - part-presented by children themselves.

History

Radio Lollipop was founded in 1978 at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children in

Surrey, England Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, at first primarily as a cable-wired station for the 460 children in the hospital. The station made its first broadcast on 5 May 1979, when the first Radio Lollipop went on-air. Following the success of the first station, the

International Year of the Child UNESCO proclaimed 1979 as the International Year of the Child. The proclamation was signed on January 1, 1979, by United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. A follow-up to the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the proclamation ...

Committee provided funding in 1980 to develop Radio Lollipops in other

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

hospitals. Over time, emphasis shifted from the radio station to volunteers spending time on wards entertaining children in person, by playing games, doing arts and crafts, and reading stories. However, the "radio", with children's programming and often presenting on-air, remains a central part of the charity. Programming consists of on-air presenter-banter with children, interspersed with request songs, comedy and competitions. In most hospitals, the programme is wired to speakers in wards, rather than actually broadcast, but a central studio, with on-air presenters, provides a focal point and base, and is open to children. There is a project under-way to carry feed from other hospitals in different time zones throughout the day, via the internet. Radio Lollipop is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, usually a mix of city business people, retirees and medical students, and usually operates in the evenings. In 1985, the first Radio Lollipop outside the UK was started at the

Princess Margaret Hospital for Children Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (PMH) was a children's hospital and centre for paediatric research and care located in Perth, Western Australia. It was the state's only specialist children's hospital until it closed in 2018, coinciding ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. It was brought to Perth by Steve and Pat Salter, a couple from the United Kingdom. From that beginning, the organisation has expanded to hospitals in the east coast of Australia, New Zealand, and America. Radio Lollipop is in one of the largest specialist children referral hospitals in the world,

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS F ...

for Children, where it provides play services to children in 390 beds on 21 wards. It originally broadcast radio from, and held play sessions in, a former

Jubilee line The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in suburban north-west London and in east London, via the West End of London, West End, South Bank and London Docklands, Docklands. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the ...

tube train that was craned into the hospital and converted to house the Radio Lollipop studio.

Locations

Australia

Perth Children's Hospital Perth Children's Hospital (PCH) is a specialist children's hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia, located at the corner of Winthrop Avenue and Monash Avenue on the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEII) site. It is Western Australia's s ...

, Perth, Western Australia *

St John of God Murdoch Hospital St John of God Murdoch Hospital is a 511-bed private non-profit hospital located in the southern suburbs of Perth in Western Australia, immediately adjacent to the public Fiona Stanley Hospital campus. The distance between the entrances to the ...

, Murdoch, Western Australia *

Fiona Stanley Hospital Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) is a state government hospital and teaching facility in Murdoch, Western Australia. Completed in December 2013, the hospital is the largest building project ever undertaken for the Government of Western Australia. I ...

, Murdoch, Western Australia * St John of God Midland Hospital, Midland, Western Australia *

Joondalup Health Campus Joondalup Health Campus is the largest health care facility in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. The 722-bed hospital has featured combined public and private services since 1996. In March 2013, the new Joondalup Private Hospital ...

, Joondalup, Western Australia *

Armadale Kelmscott District Memorial Hospital Armadale Health Service is a public healthcare facility in Mount Nasura, in Perth's south-eastern suburbs. The campus includes Armadale Hospital, a general hospital with an emergency department with 47 patient spaces. The campus also includes A ...

, Armadale, Western Australia *

Rockingham, Western Australia Rockingham is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located 47 km south-south-west of the city centre. It acts as the primary centre for the City of Rockingham. It has a beachside location at Mangles Bay, the southern extremity of Cockburn ...

* Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia * Mater Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland *

Queensland Children's Hospital The public Queensland Children's Hospital (QCH), on Stanley Street in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is the primary facility of Children's Health Queensland. QCH has an emergency department and intensive care unit, offering specialist ...

, Brisbane, Queensland *

Logan Hospital Logan Hospital is a major public hospital and healthcare centre servicing the Logan City, Logan region in the state of Queensland, located at the corner of Armstrong and Loganlea Roads in Meadowbrook, Queensland, Meadowbrook, Queensland, Austr ...

, Meadowbrook, Queensland *

Gold Coast University Hospital Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH or GCH), also simply known as Gold Coast Uni Hospital, is a major teaching hospital and a tertiary-level district general hospital on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, opened on 28 September 2013. The h ...

, Southport, Queensland * Monash Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria

New Zealand

Starship Children's Hospital Starship Children's Hospital is a public children's hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. Opened on 18 November 1991, it was one of the first purpose-built children's hospitals in New Zealand, and is the largest such facility in the country. Altho ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

* Kidz First,

Middlemore Hospital Middlemore Hospital is a major public hospital in the suburb of Ōtāhuhu, Auckland, New Zealand. The hospital has approximately 800 beds. There are 24 operating theatres across two sites. History In 1943, during World War II, construction com ...

Waitakere Hospital Waitakere Hospital is a general hospital located in the Henderson/Lincoln area of the New Zealand city of Auckland. It is administered by Te Whatu Ora and provides health services to residents in the North Shore, Waitakere and Rodney districts ...

* Manukau SuperClinic,

Christchurch Hospital Christchurch Hospital is the largest tertiary hospital in the South Island of New Zealand. The public hospital is in the centre of Christchurch city, on the edge of Hagley Park, and serves the wider Canterbury region. The Canterbury District ...

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

*Whangarei Base Hospital,

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...

United Kingdom

* Royal Hospital for Sick Children,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

* Royal Hospital for Children,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Birmingham Children's Hospital Birmingham Children's Hospital is a specialist children's hospital located in Birmingham, England. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and operates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city. The serv ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Royal Victoria Infirmary The Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) is a 673-bed tertiary referral hospital and research centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with strong links to Newcastle University. The hospital is part of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation T ...

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

Bristol Royal Hospital for Children Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, also known as the Bristol Children's Hospital, is a Children's hospital, paediatric hospital in Bristol and the only paediatric major trauma centre in South West England. The hospital is part of the Universit ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust which operates the University Hospital Southampton. Within this hospital are the Southampton General Hospital, the Southampton Children's Hospital and the Princess ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

* Manchester Children's Hospital NHS Trust,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

* Ninewells Hospital and Medical School,

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Evelina Children's Hospital Evelina London Children's Hospital is a specialist National Health Service, NHS hospital in London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and provides teaching facilities for London South Bank Univers ...

United States

* Nicklaus Children's Hospital,

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Texas Children's Hospital Texas Children's Hospital is an acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. With 973 beds, it is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located within the Texas Medical ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

South Africa

New Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Radio Lollipop website
Non-profit organisations based in the United Kingdom Hospital radio stations Radio stations in Surrey Children's radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Australia Radio stations in New Zealand Children's radio stations in the United States