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Local poet gives back to Nottingham Children’s Hospital after receiving care as a child
Nottinghamshire poet, Liz Carney-Marsh, visited Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Children's Hospital to donate copies of a new children's football poetry book which has been published in time for the World Cup.
She wanted to donate copies to the Children's Hospital as she spent a lot of her childhood receiving care at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) and wanted to give back.
Liz said; "It's been lovely to spend some time reading with the children today and talking about hospital life because it's tough for them.
“I get what they are going through and they could see that."
Liz was an active, football-loving child but around the age of nine, persistent knee pain began to change everything.
Over the following years Liz underwent multiple orthopaedic surgeries and treatment across several Nottinghamshire hospitals including QMC and City Hospital.
Due to the complexity of her surgery, a teenage Liz found herself placed on a ward with five older women who adored poetry and ditties. Every single day for two months, Liz wrote a poem about each of them and her love of poetry was born.
As Liz spent time talking to some of the children in the Ward D34 playroom about life in hospital, the nightly “obs”, the hustle and bustle, the early mornings and the constant wishing to be able to go home. She gets it. She remembers it very well.
She also suggested the kids could have fun writing their own poems about the staff: “Poetry is fun and it’s easy to read and write. It’s something that anyone can do.”
Liz and the children sat around a table together with some of the ward staff, reading the poems from this new book, “Back of the Net”, featuring Liz’s poems and many other poets including, Michael Rosen and John Cooper Clark.
Hospital Play Specialist team leader, Jenny Reaney said: “It’s great to see the children reading these books.
“When we ask them on the ward what activities they would like to do they are always wanting an iPad or games console, so to get them away from that and get a book in their hands is brilliant.”
Deputy divisional nurse, Jo Wilson, was very thankful for the generous book donation and for Liz’s time with the children: “It's the little moments like this that medicine is unable to provide”, she said.
“It brings happiness and smiles to the children while in hospital. And connecting football with reading makes education fun.”