Alder Hey Blog 1

I work with children and young people who are admitted to Alder Hey with a range of conditions that have an impact on their lives. I also work from home as a freelance illustrator in children's publishing. My clients include Disney, Usborne and Macmillan and they keep me very busy, but it can be lonely.

Last April I joined Comics Youth as an illustrator to work with children and young people at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. I had to wait a little while before I could go into Alder Hey because paperwork, so I got to grips with how the process works and brought some of the existing stories to life. That was tricky because I hadn't had a chance to get to know any of the children yet. 

I'm a pretty sensitive soul (all feelings leak out of my eyes) and although I was excited to be a part of something so wholesome, I was nervous too. I soon found out there was no need. We worked with five patients on my first day and we had so much fun. We drew animals, timelines and -my personal favourite- wolves. I learned early on that sometimes patients are booked in for physiotherapy or tests, sometimes they get tired or feel poorly, and sometimes they get to go home, so sessions can be cut short. The environment is busy and unpredictable so it's important that we're flexible and adaptable to what's happening around us. 

Being prepared with a range of activities to suit different needs ensures that we can work with patients who may have, for example, difficulties in communicating their ideas either due to a physical condition that affects how they communicate or any emotional barriers. Sometimes hospital is the last place these guys want to be.

[This young person had a neurological condition. We were unable to interpret their pictures and they couldn’t communicate verbally, so we responded to their initial drawings, looking at the way lines that would usually be drawn as curved and smooth, were zig-zags and spikes.]

Everyone we see has a story to tell and we take those stories away and turn them into professional standard illustrations and comic strips as part of our Graphic Medicine program. I'm drawn to tasks that require problem solving skills - I like unravelling knots and finding the end of the sticky-tape. The best part of my job is that there are lots of problems to solve.  Sometimes a young person can't get into a comfortable drawing position as they can only lay on one side due to a freak accident on Morcambe Pier...

...so we have to find a way forward. Sometimes it can be that a child is shy, or says that they can't draw, or are just self-conscious about being in an environment where they feel they may be judged. We have to work together to find the unique way each child wants to tell their story. There's no pressure on what that story is, it completely depends on the individuality of each young person we visit. The importance of becoming friends in each of those hospital rooms is massive. We can't run in waving our pencils around and showing off our own drawing skills - it's not about that. We have to find out about their lives, likes, dislikes, friends, family and anything else they want to talk to us about. Sometimes they're comfortable talking about the reasons for being in AH, sometimes not so much. Either way is fine, it's not our party, so we don't dictate. Once the drawing part starts, we work on a warm-up sketch first and demonstrate how to use shapes and lines. This is usually a character draw-a-long that we do together. We add things like wands, or ice creams, or pets to the character. We use this time to encourage confidence and decision making skills through their art. Then we move on to the bigger project - the comic! Sometimes these are short and sweet...

Sometimes not so much...

But they are always based on an authentic story that has come from their imagination, life experience, or heart.

All of the wards we work on are rewarding, but we often see some of the children on Oncology more than once as their treatment is complex and generally long. The Oncology ward is an amazing place - they have a classroom and teacher, a chill out room, games, a drum machine and is generally somewhere that feels like a good place to be when your health means you can't be at home. Sometimes we work in the classroom and sometimes we work in the children's rooms or on the day ward. We often get longer stories or series from the children we see on this ward as they want to continue with a story we've worked on before, or tweak it, or just make another with a similar theme. 

A completed story from Oncology ward.

Sometimes they want to talk to us about their journey from diagnosis to present. This can be emotional for everyone, and I'll never forget one young person telling me how they couldn't wait to see their mum's pretty face after a long trip to hospital they had to make on their own. They'd never told their mum that before and it felt really special to be a part of that conversation.

We have lots of contact with the amazing team of play-workers at Alder Hey. Parents, staff and young people are keen to let us know that they value our service and approach. It really is the best feeling in the world that you've put a smile on someone's face, had a funny conversation with a reluctant talker, or released a bit of pressure for a nervous patient when they really needed a bit of extra support.