Joyce Shares her Memories of 25 Years of Giggle Doctors

Although the charity has grown over the years, there is one person who has known our Giggle Doctors from the very beginning. Joyce Stebbings is the Play Services Manager at Southampton Children’s Hospital and has worked with our Giggle Doctors at several hospitals throughout her career.

“I first met the Giggle Doctors when I worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1994. At the time they never really came to my ward because it was such a big hospital but I would see them around the hospital making people laugh.

When I moved to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton in 2003 I got in touch with Theodora Children’s Charity to see if the Giggle Doctors could come to our hospital. We didn’t really have anything at that point in time, we needed the Giggle Doctors to come and make a difference. The Giggle Doctors started visiting the children and it was amazing!

There is one memory of the Giggle Doctors which has stuck with me over the years and I can still picture it now. There was a little girl who was in palliative care and had significant special needs. We didn’t really see her interact that much with other people. Then one day the Giggle Doctor was visiting and came into her room with his little ukulele and sat down and sang to her and such huge smiles started spreading across her face. The Giggle Doctor must have spent half an hour singing her different songs and it was so magical.  It meant so much to the family, they took their camera out and were taking pictures.  Then afterwards the parents came up to Giggle Doctor, gave him a hug and said ‘said thank you so much!’ and the Giggle Doctor said ‘that’s why I do it’. It made me cry as well and that memory has always stuck with me.

The little girl died not long afterwards but that moment would have stayed with the family. They have those photographs and memories to show that even though it was a sad time, it was a happy time. The laughter from that day has stuck with me all these years later and that’s why I have been a true believer in the difference the Giggle Doctors make.

Now I work at Southampton Children’s Hospital and the impact the Giggle Doctors have is still as significant as it was back in Brighton and back at the very beginning at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. If I could, I would bottle the laughter because that’s what it is all about – the laughter the Giggle Doctors bring. They are just something magical!”