Meet our runners
Children's A&E hospital play workers are running the Battersea Half Marathon for Starlight
Summer Pavitt, a play worker at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, is hoping to raise £250 by running the Battersea Half Marathon. “I’m running to support Starlight who help us with our work,” said Summer.
“We find Starlight’s boxes really helpful - particularly the baby and sensory boxes to help with blood tests and cannulas. The ‘Play Well’ boxes which contain activity books and games are also really good because they provide something for older children to do who have come in with mental health difficulties.
“We see around five teens a day for mental health problems, especially around exam time. Winter is another peak time I think because of the dark evenings and colder weather keeping people inside more.”
Summer, 25, who used to work in a nursery, has worked at the Queen Elizabeth for over a year. She is hoping to study to become a qualified health play specialist. “I’ve known I’ve wanted to do this since I was 6 or 7 years old when I had an operation on my eyes. The play worker who came around to see me was amazing and I decided then that I wanted to do this job,” she explained.
She is one of two health play workers in Queen Elizabeth’s emergency department and is a Starlight Play Champion – our network which supports play workers, health play specialists and those working in paediatric care.
"I’m looking forward to the run. Reaching 21k in training has been hard!”
Summer’s colleague Molly Hebdon has been working at Queen Elizabeth’s emergency department since September and is running for Starlight because of the support we have given her since she started. She is also one of our play champions and through this network can access training – such as Guided Imagery for pain control.
“I really appreciate how Starlight has settled me in and given me skills that would have taken me much longer to learn on the job,” said Molly.
Molly, 22, who worked in a pre-school supporting SEN children for five years before joining the hospital, explained how she used her pain control skills to support a 15-year-old girl with Sickle cell disease who was anxious about having a cannula fitted.
“I used mindfulness to relax her first then I asked her where her favourite place was and she said her bedroom where she listened to music and practiced her instruments. I asked her more detailed questions about what she could see and hear in the room to take her there in her mind. The cannula was inserted and she didn’t resist. She cried because she could not believe it. Her mum said her daughter usually had to be sedated. I explained the science behind it so she could use this with her daughter in the future. It works well for children aged 7 and over.”
Molly, who does 12-hour shifts and alternates with Summer, says she can manage her workload quite well but there are times when she is helping one child with a medical procedure while she can hear another distressed child elsewhere. She is aiming to raise £175.
“I am quite looking forward to the run. It was one of my goals for 2025. It’s quite difficult to find the time to do such long runs though!”