We visited the Readathon website & downloaded & used a lot of the extra materials found on there, such as posters but we especially loved the videos both for Secondary Schools & Teachers on running Readathon but the one video we found that made the most impact was called Henry’s Story and was a recorded piece from Points West News. It was an incredibly moving and inspiring piece that truly demonstrated the positive impact Readathon has made to this one boy called Henry. Hearing from Henry himself, as well as a professional storyteller, his doctor and his mum really encapsulated the main focus of Readathon which is to help improve the experiences these children have when in hospital long term. We showed this video to our Student Volunteers and 2 of them signed up as soon as the video finished and were genuinely moved and excited to be involved in making such a difference.

We intend to show the same video to staff at our weekly staff meetings in order to encourage them to get involved or encourage other students – our main strategy with staff is that if any have young children they could do Readathon by reading books at bedtime, then their children get stories, they read more & spend more time with them (if not already) and also help children in hospital.

Rebecca Wilson, College Librarian, Huddersfield New College Library

http://huddnewcoll.ac.uk/