Secret Santas

These amazing women give the kind of gifts that don’t come with a price tag

‘my family Celebrations are Put on hold’ Josephine Segal, 50, lives in London with her husband. She has two children, James, 23, and Nicole, 21

you never expect to find yourself on a hospital ward at christmas. my nephew was just nine years old when he spent christmas 2013 in Whittington Hospital. He woke on the morning of the 25th in a strange bed, with the persistent beeping of machinery all around him.

i can only imagine how confusing and upsetting that would be for a child. He was allowed home in the afternoon, but the experience of that morning stuck with me as i realised what a stark setting a hospital ward really was for a family christmas.

Having previously worked in the charity sector, granting wishes for sick and terminally ill children, i knew how uplifting a small gesture like a gift could be. But what about those childhood experiences that can’t be so easily packaged?

so in october 2013, with an old colleague, Vanessa crocker, 55, we launched a charity called spread a smile. our mission was to brighten the lives of children in hospital by arranging entertainers to visit wards across london.

over the next year, we assembled a trusted team of magicians, artists, facepainters, singers and actresses dressed as fairies, and started organising two visits per month to great ormond street Hospital.

the performances were a hit, and nine months later we started a similar service at university college Hospital. it meant expanding the charity, and hiring a wonderful team to help us schedule the visits.

Five years on, we’re organising 21 visits across five different london hospitals this december, including christmas day.

although my own family celebrations have to be put on hold while i accompany our performers from ward to ward, my family don’t mind. in fact, they help out.

We won’t sit down to our dinner until the late evening, but i’d much rather spend my day making children laugh and smile in hospital. it’s given my christmases a new sense of purpose.

‘I have a new sense of Purpose’