TV star Sarah Parish MBE showed her support for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice’s urgent appeal for nurses and specialist carers by recording a video and meeting nursing staff, Saski Newman and Natalie Collins during a visit to The Ark with her husband James Murray MBE on the 13th January 2025.
The couple are funding 300 dramatherapy sessions for children at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice through their foundation – The Murray Parish Trust. They founded The Murray Parish Trust in 2014 after their daughter Ella-Jayne died from a congenital heart defect in 2009 when she was eight months old.Since 2014, The Murray Parish Trust have directed over £4 million to innovative projects which transform the future of children’s healthcare and are committed to supporting the mental health of children that are seriously unwell – and their families.
Sarah Parish MBE says on her motivation to start the trust:
‘When our darling little Ella-Jayne was in Intensive Care for four months, we witnessed first-hand the unmet need for emotional and psychological support for both children and their loved ones. If the mounting trauma of having or being a seriously ill child isn’t properly processed with professional help, it can have devastating consequences in the long term. The Murray Parish Trust exists because it is vital there is help at hand for these families in their darkest hours.’
While at The Ark, the actress took time to learn more about Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice’s nurse and specialist carer recruitment campaign. The campaign hopes to attract Band 3 and 4 specialist carers and Band 5 and 6 nurses to join their clinical team so they can support more children and families. Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice are looking for passionate individuals to make a difference to the lives of children and families and to make it possible for them to live as families and not patients or carers. Successful candidates will be joining an award-winning, certified ‘Outstanding’ (by The Care Quality Commission) team and will put the experience of children and families at the heart of everything they do. As well as understanding their care needs, they’ll get to know each child, from their favorite song to how they like to play as it’s vital that every child is treated as an individual. Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice focus on what children can do, rather than their limitations. Care is delivered either in the state-of-the art building, The Ark, or out in the community, so confidence and experience of autonomous working is key. New recruits will allow parents to focus on themselves or siblings and the ability to live outside of their child’s condition. This support continues through to end-of-life care where specialist carers and nurses provide a comforting, reassuring presence, taking time to understand what is important to the family and so facilitating as good a death as possible.
Sophie Evans is a Band 4 Specialist Carer at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. When asked why she wanted to work in a paediatric palliative care setting, she says:
‘You can be having the worst day in the world and then one of the children laughs and you know why you do it. Also, just seeing how grateful families are, for me, it’s nothing, but for them, it’s everything.’ Sophie talks about one the children she supports called Talin Al-Khatib, 8, from Tottenham. Talin has hydrotherapy in our specialised pool with Sophie to relieve the pain from her scoliosis. Talin is non-verbal but always has a smile for Sophie, especially when she knows she’s going in the pool. Sophie says: ‘Talin loves being in the water and makes happy vocalizations for the whole session. I’ve never seen a child so happy, her face just lights up when she’s in the pool. She is generally a happy child but in the pool it’s more than that, it’s pure delight.’
Talin’s mum Zainab Al-Khatib says:
‘Talin really likes Sophie and is used to her voice now and that’s really lovely.’ Zainab goes on to describe how she feels about the support she receives from Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice: ‘It’s like heaven for me when I come here, I feel comfortable and happy, it’s like a second home.’
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice’s Head of Clinical Servies, Elisha Lewis, said:
We’re so grateful to Sarah Parish MBE for supporting our Nurse and Specialist Carer Recruitment campaign. It’s vital that we attract, secure and retain quality candidates for these roles so we can offer more choice to our existing families and also support more children and families in the community that need us.’
More details can be found here – https://careers.noahsarkhospice.org.uk/, any questions can be directed to – [email protected]