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Alisha's story: Making a dream into reality

Born at The Rosie at just 24 weeks, Alisha is now 16 years old and passionate about the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital and making it a reality.

In this film she describes some of the challenges she faces in hospital, and her wishes for the new hospital to improve the experience for her and others.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAMNHF6FMqk

Video transcript

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Hi, I'm Alisha I'm 16.

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I'm a member of the Cambridge Children's Hospital Press Pack, and I have

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a number of health conditions and a number of learning disabilities.

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I have dyspraxia.

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I have sensory processing disorder

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and I also have mild hearing loss in both ears.

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And the challenges I face at hospital are quite stark in terms of

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just especially when like, I’m entering A&E for example

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and you're really sort of in that crisis moment.

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So for my dyspraxia I'd generally need

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the lights be dimmed quite low

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because in terms of like the overstimulation,

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I do get very distressed, especially if I've just come indoors

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and there's a lot of noise, a lot of bright lights

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and I generally need to have the lights quite dim, for people just to talk a bit

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quieter just so I get myself calm and I'm not in this state of sensory overload.

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Well, I just find everything very sort of distressing.

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So what I'd like the doctors and nurses to do

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is maybe move me into, like, a quieter room in advance.

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So an isolation ward and isolation bay and dim the lights.

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So I feel a bit less distressed and that I know what's going on around me

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and I'm bit less disorientated.

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I'd also like,

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for example, just in general access and getting around for the corridors

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to be quite wide, because of my dyspraxia, I struggle with personal space

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and just generally with moving around my balance isn't that great.

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So I would need wide corridors, especially in the new children's hospital.

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I can't really judge space that well and I can't really, I trip over things a lot.

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And so it does make it quite hard to move around corridors and like around people.

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And so wide corridors would be great for people

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to just move around and to just have equal access.

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So I don't trip over things and so that people have more room to move as well.

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So yeah.

Alisha is a member of the Cambridge Children’s Press Pack, a group of creative young people telling their stories and playing a key role in connecting with the wider community.

It’s a dream to think that this new children’s hospital, the first of its kind in the east of England, is finally coming to fruition. It will be the hospital that changes children’s and families’ lives for the better and will be recognised all around the world for its innovation.

Alisha