A BOY and his monster have made new Friends at St Cross Hospital.
Local author Julia Fox visited the team at the hospital’s Children’s Outpatients department to donate copies of her book Tim-Tim and the Sickly Monster.
She arranged the visit through the Friends of St Cross charity as part of her mission to share the story among ill children.
Julia said: “I wrote the book on hearing the story of a young boy from the Ukraine who had Leukaemia and his strategy for coping with his treatment was to characterise it as a sickly monster which he needed to fight off.
“Thankfully the young boy is in remission and his mother was so pleased with the book that she asked me to share it with as many children’s hospitals and wards as I am able to.
“I live in the area and would like to thank the Friends of St Cross for helping me to contact the team at St Cross and at the University Hospital in Coventry.
“I am very pleased to say that copies of the book are now on sale in Hunt’s Bookshop of High St in Rugby and they have kindly promised to make a donation to the Friends of St Cross for every copy sold.”
Sue Ellis, Lead Nurse for Paediatrics at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, said: “The book is excellently written and illustrated. We have placed copies in the consulting rooms so that the clinicians can give them to relevant families.
“We have no doubt that this will bring a smile to their faces and help them through difficult times.”
Willy Goldschmidt, Chairman of the Friends of St Cross, said: “The number of ways in which members of the community choose to support the hospital never ceases to amaze me.
“It has been a real pleasure to facilitate this donation, meet Julia and read her book.”
