Helping little hearts understand big journeys
Young children whose loved ones are undergoing heart transplants in Scotland will soon have a special resource to help them understand what’s happening thanks to a new initiative from NHS Golden Jubilee.
Working in partnership with the charity Get Better Books, staff from the Scottish National Advanced Heart Failure Service based at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital in Clydebank have created a bespoke children’s book titled ‘Big Moo’s New Heart’.
The fun and interactive book is designed to explain the heart transplant journey in a way that is engaging and easy for children to understand and includes:
- Simple explanations of how the human body and heart work
- Information about medicines and the whole transplant process
- Activities such as word games and colouring pages
- A uniquely Scottish twist, featuring local landmarks like the River Clyde and Titan Crane bespoke to NHS Golden Jubilee
As Scotland’s only heart transplant centre, NHS Golden Jubilee tailored the book for children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews of patients, ensuring it reflects the hospital’s environment and the family journey involved in transplantation.
Transplant Co-ordinator Frances Gallacher tells us: “We know from experience that going through the transplant journey affects the whole family and friends and one of the hardest questions we hear is, ‘How do I tell my kids?’
“As the only Scottish heart transplant centre we asked for a bespoke book for here and we are delighted with what they’ve created.
“Our transplant coordinators and nurses got together to come up with the details and ideas for the work we do here, as well as what’s on site, the surrounding area like the River Clyde and the Titan Crane.
“This book helps families explain what’s happening in a way that’s reassuring and easy to understand.”
NHS Golden Jubilee patient John McCormick, 43, from Lenzie, and his family found the Get Better Books a massive help as he faced his the prospect of heart transplant after thinking his illness was just a winter cold or flu.
The father-of-three underwent five operations within five weeks before discovering that a heart transplant was the only thing was would save his life.
John said: "It was really quite a shock at first as I’ve never been ill before up until this year and I just thought I had a cold that I couldn’t shake off, so to go from that to needing a heart transplant was a bit difficult to take in.
“We requested information on the heart transplant process at the start with the coordinators and the kids because we wanted them to hear it from someone who wasn’t their parents.
“We wanted to make sure they weren’t left in the dark and prevent their minds from wandering and that’s when we were introduced to one of the books, which really explained things in simple terms for them.
“It was extremely helpful and alleviated a lot of the kids’ concerns.
“Everything else went very well and I had a great team around me at the Golden Jubilee. It’s all been going great since then as well thankfully and my new heart is doing fantastic.
“It really is a fantastic team here though, I’ve had tremendous support and you get to know people well here also. People say it’s like a big family and it really is.”
John's daughter Mila, 11, tells us: "The books simplify the heart transplant process which gave me an understanding of what was going to happen to my dad during and after his operation.”
Georgina Potier, who has had 3 kidney transplants, founded the Get Better Books charity with Jake Abrams, who creates the illustrations for the books.
Georgina said: “I went back to Great Ormond Street who looked after me as a child to see how I could help use design to help children understand their treatment journey.
“And what started as one book for kidney transplant patients has exploded and we’re now in 20 hospitals across the UK and we’re really proud to help so many children.
“It’s lovely working with different teams across the country, making it specific for different hospitals and adapting it to their needs, which we’ve done for NHS Golden Jubilee and we’re really proud of this one, it’s fantastic.”
Jake said: “We wanted to make something fun and interactive that explains the process in a friendly way. It’s full of humour, colouring activities, and space for questions – all designed to reduce anxiety for children.”
Find out more here: https://www.getbetterbooks.co.uk/
