Merlin's Magic Wand donates a magical Mobile Unit to a children's ward in Glangwili Hospital, Wales
Merlin’s Magic Wand
10th October 2019
The Merlin’s Magic Wand Children’s Charity was very proud this month to offer the opportunity to donate one of their magical Mobile Entertainment Units to a very inspiring young lady called Elly Neville. Elly, now 9 years old, has been actively fundraising since the age of 5 ½ years old and the Merlin’s Magic Wand Charity felt her efforts deserved some big recognition.
In November 2015, with the help of her parents, Elly’s Ward 10 Flag Appeal was created following Elly’s efforts to fundraise from a flag she designed as part of a school competition. In January 2019, Elly’s Ward 10 Flag Appeal wrote to Merlin Entertainments asking for support and they were introduced to Erin from the Merlin’s Magic Wand children’s charity. Impressed with Elly’s achievements, the charity kindly offered Elly the opportunity to donate one of their Mobile Entertainment Units to a children’s ward of her choice. Cilgerran Ward based at Glangwili Hospital is the largest children’s ward in west Wales. Patients on Cilgerran Ward are children and young people aged 0-16 years (including young people with additional needs up to 18 years) who live in Carmarthenshire and the neighbouring counties of Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The ward currently has 30 inpatient beds, 8 assessment beds and 3 high dependency beds.
These unique Mobile Entertainment Units are worth £5,000 and have been innovatively designed to bring accessible magic directly to the children at their bedside. The Units are easy to manoeuvre around the wards of the hospital and include LEGO, DUPLO, an Xbox, a TV and drawers for storing games. They will provide hours of entertainment through interactive and creative play and offer much-needed respite for the children and an outlet to be distracted during their time in hospital.
Erin Woods, Merlin’s Magic Wand Charity Manager, who was thrilled to attend the launch of the Mobile Unit at the hospital, said “The Merlin’s Magic Wand children’s charity was so impressed to hear about the wonderful fundraising that Elly has been doing for her local hospital, which currently sits at over £200,000, and we felt that this amazing effort deserved a big celebration. We’re proud to support Elly’s Ward 10 Flag Appeal by giving Elly the opportunity to donate one of our Mobile Entertainment Units to a local children’s ward of her choice, as a big thank you and well done. Elly chose the very deserving children’s ward at Glangwili General Hospital to receive the gift and we hope that the children on Cilgerran Ward will enjoy some fun escapism and creative play during their stay at the hospital.”
Sandra Jones, Play Service Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board shared the hospital’s appreciation of receiving such a magical gift; “I would like to thank Merlin’s Magic Wand for the donation of a Mobile Entertainment Unit to Cilgerran Ward at Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen and Elly's Ward 10 Flag Appeal for nominating us to receive the unit. So many children and young people will greatly benefit from this donation, which will not only help our patients interact and socialise whilst recovering in hospital but will also be an invaluable distraction from their medical condition, treatment and pain. The unit will enable us to provide an inclusive, positive patient experience and we are extremely grateful.”
