Spring til indhold

Smile – if you can

Earlier this week Dane and I went on a tour of the CBBC. As a fantastic bonus for my little Blue Peter super-fan, we were treated to a visit in the studio where they were shooting next week’s episode of Blue Peter. All three presenters came over and said hello and Dane, who was the only one with a Blue Peter badge, got special attention. He was so, so proud and happy!

When we got home, he more or less redecorated his room with cut-out pages from the Blue Peter book which we’d bought in the BBC shop.

Briefly, to those of my readers who don’t or can’t watch Blue Peter. The programme is more than 50 years old and the concept is more or less unchanged. It’s about being a good and decent person and taking good care of the less fortunate and of animals. The three presenters are fantastic, but we’re particularly taken with Helen Skelton who last year ran 78 miles in 24 hours through the Namibian desert for charity. We followed her training and were just amazed by her bravery and stamina. For a young pretty girl with a super job, this really wasn’t something she needed to do!

This week Blue Peter has launched a charity appeal that means something special to me and thus to Dane too. It’s called Operation Smile and the purpose is to give children like this one a chance to smile at the world by giving them an operation. Please click the link and read about it.

From Operationsmile.org
From Operationsmile.org

Some of you will know why this means something special to me, some of you will not. But I’ll tell you. I was born like that little girl and have had more than 10 operations between the age of a few months and 21 to make it right. They are much better at it nowadays, though.

Me at about 2. Had already had two operations.
Me at about 2. Had already had two operations.

The amount of humiliating bullying that I suffered as a child I wouldn’t wish for anyone. And I’m not whining here – it’s just a fact. I’ve had a great life as a young person and as an adult, but what would it had been like if I hadn’t had easy free access to all those operations? And what if I’d been born in India?

So Dane and I have been busy changing t-shirts into surgery gowns. Here are the results:

They have now been delivered in the Blue Peter Smile Appeal box at our local Curry’s.

Please set to work with your own children and post links to pictures as comments to this post. If you don’t have smallish children or if you’re not in the UK, click here and see how you can help to give a child a new start in life.

2 tanker om “Smile – if you can”

  1. Tak Dorthe. Både sønnen og jeg tudede, da vi så alle de små børn med hareskår på filmen. Især pigerne går en krank skæbne i møde, hvis de ikke er “kønne”.

Skriv et svar

Din e-mailadresse vil ikke blive publiceret. Krævede felter er markeret med *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share