VOLUNTEER of the WEEK
Joe, 15, used his own experience to cheer up sick kids
My entire life I’ve been in and out of hospital. I’ve always had intense stomach cramps, fevers, fatigue, mouth sores, and have been very underweight.
In 2016, when I was eight, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a form of in ammatory bowel disease.
In 2021, when I was 12, I was stuck in hospital for three months after having surgery to remove a 20cm section of bowel that’d been damaged by my condition.
Even though the doctors and nurses at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) were lovely and my parents, Sharlene and Ken, were by my side, I just wanted to go home.
One day, Captain Starlight, a superhero from the Starlight Children’s Foundation, came to visit all the kids.
He gave me a LEGO Batman kit, and it felt really special knowing that someone cared enough to come and cheer me up.
Inspired, I started thinking about how I could help make sick kids smile too.
That night as I lay down to go to sleep, I had an idea.
‘Hospital pillowcases are boring and scratchy,’ I told Mum and Dad. ‘I want to make cheerful, soft pillowcases and give them to everyone in children’s wards around Australia.’
Once I was home again and feeling better, Mum and I found a cute and colourful monster fabric that’s super soft.
Naming my project Monster Smiles, I used all my pocket money, as well as birthday and Christmas money I’d saved, to have 500 pillowcases made.
Then Dad and I took them to PCH. Giving a pillowcase to each child, and seeing their faces light up with smiles, con rmed we were doing something special. We also left some for the nurses to hand out.
‘We get the kids to count the monsters, or name them, to help distract them during procedures,’ they told us later.
Mum and Dad tell me how proud they are of me.
Since then, I’ve been collecting cans and bottles to recycle for cash, and salvaging goods from council pick-ups and selling them, all to have more pillowcases made.
As well as the monster material, I also have other prints, like dogs and cats, and I sell pillowcases at market stalls and on my website. Every sale helps me donate a pillowcase to a sick child.
So far, I’ve donated around 10,000 pillowcases to hospitals all over the country, but there are always more kids that need cheering up.
I visit hospital every eight weeks for treatment to help manage Crohn’s, but running Monster
Smiles and knowing I’m helping brighten kids’ lives helps get me through. ●
As told to Samantha Ireland
Visit monstersmiles.com.au
I’ve donated 10,000 pillowcases