An Inverness mum has spoken of her delight at being able to provide relief to sick kids at Raigmore Hospital’s Children’s Ward through the donation of an £8,000 magic carpet.
Kelly MacRae, 38, donated the device to the ward following the success of Amelia’s Young Highlander Awards in August, an event held to honour her daughter Amelia’s fourth birthday.
Amelia was born with Autism and Global Development Delay (GDD) and has had more than 50 hospital admissions battling various illnesses and infections.
The magic carpet, which appears on the floor with the help of a projector, will help assist play specialists on the ward to interact and engage with their young patients like Amelia as well as provide a distraction to those struggling to cope with being in hospital.
As the device arrived into the ward earlier this month, poorly Amelia was admitted for her latest stint in the ward – allowing her to see first-hand the benefits it will bring to kids just like her.
Mrs MacRae said this device will help scared youngsters deal with their time in hospital.
She said: “Amelia was admitted the same day it arrived. A couple of the play workers said, ‘Kelly how did you know it was here’ and I told them I didn’t I had come in with Amelia.
“They set it up to give me a shot but Amelia sadly couldn’t try it as she was in isolation.
“It’s fascinating; it does thousands of things. The carpet can go on the wall and the ceiling so if a kids lying on their back and can’t move it can hang above them.
“The carpet is to keep kids occupied and busy and for scared kids, it calms them down. For me it’s more to help kids coming into hospital; it’s a distraction.
“Amelia is one of those kids; she is terrified of the children’s ward as she always has procedures. She has a fear of them so this carpet will help.
“It’s nice that we are in the position. We are lucky with the businesses and all the sponsors as without the sponsors we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
A spokesman for NHS Highland said: “We are very fortunate that so many people think of donating to the Children’s Unit and we are extremely grateful for this donation.
“The “magic carpet” will benefit all of the children in the ward and items like these mean so much to our patients, their parents/carers and our staff.”
