Introducing: A World with Friends (formally known as Friend Finder)

Hello there! It’s lovely to have you here, this is a special blog post for me today about the amazing charity A World with Friends, formally known as Friend Finder.
If you're new to the blog, firstly hello and a very warm welcome to you! If you'd like, you can pop over to the Welcome! page to get to know me a little.

Friend Finder is a charity founded by the wonderful Lewis Hine, who founded his charity after experiencing loneliness and isolation when he became incredibly poorly at a young age. As Lewis was not well enough to go to school, he spent long stretches of time in hospital having operations, so he did not have opportunities to maintain friendships or make new friends. This is a very common problem that those who have long term or terminal illness find, and we know the negative impact for social isolation has on our wellbeing.

I distinctly remember coming across a video Lewis made for his 16th Birthday, telling us about his life, the challenges he continues to face, and how he founded Friend Finder to help other children like himself. I was very moved and as soon as I watched it I immediately sent Lewis a message.

(I have just found the link and watched the video again and I’m still as emotional as I was the first time. So, if you’d like to, you can watch the video here.)

  'Everyone needs a friend’. – Lewis Hine

This charity and its values are very close to my heart for many reasons, however, particularly as a future SLT. I realise many of the children and young people that I will meet and work with may be in similar positions to Lewis, due to their illness, condition or disability. It will be a privilege to be able to sign post these young people and their families to such a wonderful charity.

I made a friend too! My lovely friends Holly and Kayleigh

Friend Finder’s aim is to facilitate children and young people, who experience social isolation due to their illness or disability, to make friends. Anyone who has missed their Prom due to illness or disability - or who is likely to, are invited along with their families, to the Friend Finder Prom! All are welcome in this incredibly inclusive and accessible event. So far, the team have hosted 3 Friend Finder Proms, twice in Portsmouth, and this year they hosted the first Prom in Birmingham for anyone where this is their closest Prom.

I am delighted to have become involved with the wonderful charity Friend Finder this year, a volunteer on the youth committee for the Birmingham Friend Finder Prom. The young people involved in organising the prom are completely amazing and it was an absolute pleasure working with them. I was privileged to be invited to attend the prom in Birmingham this July and meet all the young people attending, it was a magical, moving and wonderful evening.

As you may know, I am lucky to have the best job as Social Hug Assistant at BearHugs, a social enterprise founded by my incredible friend Faye. I was so happy to be able introduce Friend Finder to our lovely team at BearHugs, and for us to support them! As part of BearHugs’ 1:50 Hug Donation scheme, we donated 100 ‘CubHugs’ to the children and young people who attended the Birmingham Prom.

The lovely Faye dropping off the CubHugs!

In the past, we have also donated BearHugs to poorly children through the charity Post Pals, amazing carers with the charity Smile for M.E. and carers of children and young people with Project Parent. All three of these charities are so special, please click the links and have a read about the wonderful things they do!

I wrote a little blog post about my experience of the Friend Finder Prom, personalising the gift boxes specially made for the Prom, and hand delivering the ‘CubHugs’ to the young people. So, if you fancy having a little read of my highlights of the evening you can pop over to the BearHugs website to the ‘BearHugs' 1:50 Hug Donation Scheme: Friend Finder’ post.

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Lewis and the AV1.

A particularly special part of the evening that has really stayed with me was getting to chat to a young boy, who whilst wasn’t physically at the Prom, was very much there with us. It was incredibly wonderful to see the inclusion at the prom, including the use of AI technology – an ‘AV1’ robot from the company No Isolation. He could hear and see us, and we could chat to him, so he was able to enjoy the prom even though he was poorly in hospital. No Isolation are working to reduce loneliness and social isolation through their technology, with applications in schools, universities, events like the Friend Finder Prom and also with elderly relatives and friends with the KOMP communication device.

It’s fair to say the whole weekend was wonderful, meeting the children and young people at the prom was so special and I am very grateful to have been a small part of something so amazing.

I loved meeting Lewis!

I’d love to tell you a little bit more about Lewis, who is now 17… Along with winning 2016 Radio One Teen Hero Award and 2018 ITV NHS Hero Award, Lewis has written a book about his life, living with a life limiting illness and Friend Finder: ‘Written In The Stars’. A really worthwhile read with Lewis’ adding his ‘top tips for life’, his honest thoughts about living with a chronic illness and how important the little things are. You can buy Lewis’ book here! It was a pleasure to meet Lewis at Prom; he was completely down to earth and a lovely guy. Even though he was feeling so poorly all day, he had stuck it out to meet the children and young people who came to the Prom and take photos with everyone.

I’m sure I will be chatting more about Friend Finder, BearHugs and the wonderful things we all get up to again soon, so I will leave it there for today. As always, I would LOVE to hear from you - please feel free to drop me a message on twitter, send me an email or leave a comment anytime. It would mean a lot to me if you popped over to read a little more about Friend Finder, and you can like their page on Facebook here.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you’re having a lovely day whatever you’re getting up to!

(Updated April 2020)