Our Blog

The best job in the world

Published on: 18/06/2024

By Jack Northeast, Activities Team Leader

At Chestnut Tree House we want to add life to shortened years, which is why our services are designed to help children and families live well and have fun.

The Activities Team play a vital part in creating laughter, magic moments and joy for the children we support. Jack and his team have the job of thinking like kids, conjuring up fun ideas and making them happen! They’ve put together a full rota of fun things to do which are accessible to all ages and abilities; from regular drop-in socials for the teenagers we support to full-blown music festivals that all the families – and staff – get to enjoy!

We caught up with Jack to talk about what makes his job so special:

Zest for life

You have to be energetic and enthusiastic to do this job, and I think you must be quite childlike in your quest for fun.

Obviously, there are a lot of important and responsible things that go with the territory, but you won’t find one person in our team who doesn’t have those childlike qualities. Some of them are super competitive, some of them just love making a mess. Pretty much all of them love being super-silly.

You need to have that zest for life. People think children’s hospice care is all about death but it’s also about living, and I think we do that very well here.

Jack playing with play foam with children in the Chestnut Tree House garden

Giving children amazing experiences

Any parent, no matter what their child’s age and ability, will tell you how much of a nightmare the school holidays are for keeping children entertained. Well, add to that that your child or young person has a life-limiting condition and various complex needs that make most of the world inaccessible to them.

These families deserve to have amazing experiences, so that’s what we try to deliver. We’ve had life-sized dinosaurs in the garden, bubble shows, accessible zip-wires and paddling pools full of slime. We also put on a music festival last summer, which was amazing.

children meeting a life-sized dinosaur puppet in the Chestnut Tree House garden

For many of us, the closest friendships we have date back to childhood, that’s because playing together helps you learn so much about other people and build trust with them.

Play can help the care team to foster relationships with children and families, helping them feel comfortable in what might be a brand-new environment.

Processing grief

It is also profoundly important when families are staying with us for end-of-life care. While parents are spending time with their sick child, we can care for siblings.

Children grieve very differently to adults – sometimes play or physical activity is the best outlet for their feelings. To be able to create a space where they can grieve, but still be a child, is very important, and those are moments I hold dear.

We're celebrating #ChildrensHospiceWeek

Children's Hospice Week is an annual awareness week for children’s hospices and palliative care services - helping get the message out to the public about what a children's hospice is really like, and about the important work they do to support children with life-limiting illnesses and their families.

Further information on Children's Hospice Week