This week we welcomed Abbie from Derian House Children's Hospice to come and talk to our families about the work of a children's hospice and how it could support our families when needed. Abbie soon became popular with our children getting lots of smiles. Our theme of the week was doctors and nurses and we welcomed four new families to the session who had fun bandaging up the dolls and putting them to bed. some of our children just wanted to relax on Nessie where our staff a

Today we welcomed a new family to our stay and play session, although a little apprehensive mum managed to enjoy a brew and chat with other families and our professional visitor Neuro Disability Nurse Grace. I think it's safe to say both mum and child left feeling very relaxed and asked when they could come again. Todays session was all about music and sounds made by various musical instruments, a very popular but noisy session. Aidan and Jannah also paid us a quick visit whi

This week is half term, so we welcomed more families to this morning’s session, 5 in total. It was great to see siblings joining the session too! Our new facilities were very much appreciated, our accessible, specialist equipment really opens the door to inclusion! Today, we welcomed both familiar and new families, we look forward to creating a Jolly Josh community in time. At present (until July) our Stay and Play sessions are only open on Tuesday mornings between 10am and

Super Saver Thomas generously donated his pocket money (a whopping £54.46) to Jolly Josh, he told his Mummy (Naomi) that he wanted to help our children and their families. Thomas is in Sophie’s class at school (Joshua’s sister) and has supported our journey throughout, we think you’re a Super Star Thomas, thank you for being so kind! And we love your creative money box too! #fundraise #fundraiser #fundraising #thankyou #InspireInclusion #give #donate #connectsupportthrive #J

Today at our Jolly Josh #stayandplay session we celebrated #nationalchildrensday with the moto #choosekind We welcomed a new friend and explored sensory foam with our hands and feet! We had a lovely time playing and stretching on the mats too. We were joined by this week’s visiting professional, Alex. Alex is a Health Visitor and also a Jolly Josh Trustee, thank you so much for a lovely morning! We are looking forward to welcoming more of our Jolly Josh friends next week.

This week to raise awareness of #mentalhealthawarenessweek we welcomed MIND Rochdale and District to the session. This year's theme is 'loneliness' and as part of the #JollyJosh moto we aim to enable families to connect with both their peers and supportive professionals, in order to help them to thrive. Today, for our second session at our new centre, we welcomed 2 families. It was great to see both children enjoy the new #magiccarpet equipment, as you can see they became sub

What a lovely first session in our very own ‘place to call home!' Today we welcomed 2 families to our Stay and Play session at the new centre, it was so lovely to see the children and families comfortable and at ease, especially as we had so many volunteers this week. This week is Deaf awareness week. We were honoured to be joined by Lorenza from Eliza Says. Eliza was one our very first Jolly Josh friends when we started our Stay and Play sessions back in 2017! Eliza’s mum, L

Curtis and his team from Link Fire and Security Services were yet again on site today with a 6am start, supporting the construction of our 'place to call home'. We absolutely appreciate their support; they've spent many long hours at Jolly Josh and we're very grateful! #Rochdale #Charity #Placetocallhome #SEND #SEN #PMLD #ThankYou #Donate #Volunteer

We're so very grateful to each and every fundraiser, sponsor and volunteer who help Jolly Josh and this weekend we've a very special group of people to thank... PLASTERING PROGRESS! Volunteers have spent this sweltering weekend plaster skimming our ‘place to call home’ Our friend Jess is a professional plasterer, and a member of the online Plasterers Forum, she put forward the story of Jolly Josh to the forum and received amazing support from the community. In recent years, t

To James on Father’s Day 2021, (an edited version from 2019) You are appreciated for being the most amazing Daddy to our children. You have supported me in every way since our lives were torn with the grief of learning that our son Joshua had experienced extensive brain damage (aged 6 months old) but especially since our lives were ravaged by his terminal diagnosis just one week after his first birthday. More so, you have been my protector and the person that I’ve come to dep

Today a special little boy should have turned 5, Joshua should have been waking up today another year older, I’d have been thinking about how time passes so quickly and have been wishing for it to pause. Instead, Joshua’s birthday is spent in a state of confusion. How can it be true that instead of having a party, we visit his memorial tree, it’s our reality. Joshua entered this world peacefully, just as he exited. Naturally, I taunt myself with ‘what ifs?’ What if he had hav

We decided to donate the money raised to Jolly Josh as we think what the charity offers is priceless for parents of children with special n

Meet Anna, Children's Complex & Palliative Specialist Care Nurse & Jolly Josh Trustee...

We are thrilled to be able to share the news that Ryan, of RMO Electrical Wholesaler (Repair, Maintenance and Overhaul Ltd), has kindly offered to support us with our heating installation and will therefore be a #JollyJosh #GoldKeyHolder We are incredibly grateful for such support! Ryan was also able to introduce us to Andrew, of Collingwood Lighting, Today we met with Ryan and Andrew at our build (following social distancing guidelines) to discuss the progress and next step

During the #lockdown of the #Covid19 #pandemic the #Londonmaraton @LondonMarathon aimed to support charities by introducing a #fundraising campaign. Eliza chose to do the #JollyJoshSensoryCircuit to fundraise for our #charity Each of the 26 challenges were caught on camera and many were filmed (see the JollyJosh You Tube channel), Eliza communicates using #signlanguage #BSL #SSE See how many signs you can learn! In doing this Eliza and family not only had lots of fun, but the

During the #lockdown of the #Covid19 #pandemic the #Londonmaraton @LondonMarathon aimed to support charities by introducing a #fundraising campaign. Thomas and Lilly chose to do the #JollyJoshSensoryCircuit to fundraise for our #charity In doing this they not only had lots of fun, but they raised a whopping £253! #Thankyou #TwoPointSixChallenge #JollyJosh #Charity #Rochdale #ConnectSupportThrive #InspireInclusion #SEND

Thank You so very much to Naheeda at HMR Paediatric Community, Naheeda is the Dietetic Lead at #Rochdale and has raised a wonderful £600 for our #JollyJosh #charity Naheeda and the team visit our sessions on a monthly basis (see our timetable) and therefore know of the importance of our #placetocallhome. #Thankyou Naheeda, the funds will be spent wisely on our build, for up-to-date details of our progress, click here #ConnectSupportThrive #InspireInclusion #SEND #PMLD #fundr

It is with huge gratitude that #JollyJosh gives thanks to Graham Poole Road Transport. Graham Poole has kindly donated one of his classic trucks for auction with profits raised to be donated to our charity. He has also provided additional funding for the build of our #placetocallhome. The total of funds donated is in excess of £10,000! This incredibly generous amount of money will be spent on the build of our very own inclusive centre in Castleton, #Rochdale. Thank You Gra

Jolly Josh would like to say a heartfelt Thank you to everybody at St Martins Church (Castleton) who voted for us to be the beneficiary of a very generous donation of £650! We had the pleasure of welcoming Sister Francis and Bernice to group on Thursday to meet our children, families, volunteers and professionals. Lots of fun was had by all and we are looking forward to seeing them both again in the future. Thank you St Martins for choosing to support Jolly Josh and helping o

#Thankyou to Tosh Brogan, of Castleton, for raising a wonderful £500 for our #JollyJosh #charity #Rochdale. The funds will be used to continue to build our #placetocall home. For further details click here #fundraise #connectsupportthrive #inspireinclusion #SEND #PMLD