After a month in which clowns have hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, Hollie Renshaw meets the Clown Doctors, bringing smiles to sick children for the last decade

AS the old adage goes, laughter is the best medicine.

It could be the motto of the Durham-based Clown Doctors, who this month celebrate ten years of bringing smiles and giggles among children in North East hospitals.

The Clown Doctors use performing arts, such as storytelling and singing, to help children through the often frightening and confusing experience of being in hospital.

The eight Clown Doctors are all professional performing artists who have been trained specifically to work with children in healthcare environments. Most of them have been with the programme since its launch in 2006.

Working with children ages six months to 16 years, the activities are not only age- specific, but ability-specific too, so each child really has a unique experience with the Clown Doctors.

Programme manager Nuritza Daghlian says: ‘‘Our programme is in no way intended to replace medical treatment, but we offer something that the hospitals can’t. It is not just about entertainment but working with a specific child and helping them overcome the problems they are facing.”

The group work on a referral basis from the hospital and work with specific children on the wards, who might need particular attention on the day of their visit.

Elena Jay Miller has been with the programme for eight years and performs as Dr Melnie Mughugger. She says: “It might be that the children are about to go for an operation or need some distraction while a procedure is being done. Or simply that they’re feeling really down and they need a little bit of a pick me up and a visit from the clown doctors.

Alison McGowen, who performs as Dr Tammy Teacosy, adds: “We engage the children on a one-to-one basis depending on the needs of that particular child, so it’s very gentle and it’s not entertainment as such. It depends on the day what might be needed really, the child might just want a bit of a lift.

“We’re part of a therapeutic team and we work quite closely with staff.”

Over recent years, the Clown Doctors have focused their work on children undergoing cardiac treatment at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, and across a range of wards at the Great North Children’s Hospital, also in the city.

In the past ten years, the programme has worked with more than 30,000 children and young people in the North East, visiting hospitals three times a week throughout the year.

The programme allows the Clown Doctors to build a relationship with long-term patients and their families, returning to the children week after week to help cheer them up through difficult times.

Elena says: “You get to build up a really lovely rapport with both the child and the parent and ultimately they can really look forward to our next visit, which is really nice.

Alison adds: “Some of the children on the wards that we visit have long-term health conditions, so they might not be in hospital all the time but we can still get to know them over a number of years. Some of the children we met in the beginning, we still see when they come in to clinic or when they come into have their treatment.

“You often go the journey with the child from being very, very sick waiting for a heart transplant, right through to the point of visiting them in clinic when they’ve made a fantastic recovery, and we really feel part of that journey in our own little way. That’s really lovely to see, while still being a child and to play.”

Because the Clown Doctors don’t have the same agenda as the health staff, they focus on the emotional and therapeutic side of being in hospital and respond to what each child wants, they won’t do anything the children don’t want to, but help them to connect and interact with other people again.

Elena explains how using play to connect with the children in the limited spaces within hospitals can sometimes be difficult, but to “see the joy on the children’s and the parents faces is just magic.

Alison says: “We get absolutely lovely feedback, a mum had said the other day that it was the first time she’d seen her child smile since they came to the hospital.”