This week 52 Lives headed down the road to the coastal seaside town of Poole and spent the day visiting two amazing schools called Twin Sails and Castle Court Primary. 

It was a very early start for our Director of Kindness, Greig, but once he arrived at his first school of the day, Castle Court, he was immediately energised by all the wonderful staff and children at the school. After a quick bite to eat with the kids and Ms Booker, Greig headed down the road to Twin Sails Primary School and again was completely overwhelmed by the love and generosity that both the teachers and children displayed throughout his visit. After discussing what it means to be kind and explaining how the children's own actions can affect the world they love in, Greig told them all about a brave little girl called Samantha. 

Samantha is 5 years old and sadly had a very traumatic birth. She spent the first 8 weeks of her life in hospital where she had a major bleed on her brain and had to fight for her life. As a result, she has hydrocephalus which is a build up of fluid in her brain. It causes difficulty walking, blurred vision and headaches. Samantha had to have an operation to fit a shunt to help relieve the pressure in her brain, and divert the fluid to another part of her body. Then last year, at age 4, Samantha was also diagnosed with epilepsy. Every time she has a seizure, she is paralysed for around 20 minutes. Thankfully they are being controlled now with medication so happen less often.

Samantha lives at home with her big sister and brother, and is cared for full-time by her mum, Shell, who is a single parent. Her mum says they just take each day and night as it comes. They never know when she is going to have a seizure, and they also live with the terrifying knowledge that Samantha’s shunt could malfunction at any time.

Upon hearing Samantha's story, the children at both schools could not to wait to do something kind for her and help put a big smile on her face. Greig left the schools with an abundance of beautiful cards, gifts and messages for Samantha. As they made their gifts, the children said how wonderful it felt to know they were helping someone else. We are in no doubt that they will keep helping more people and spreading even more kindness in the future. 

Just a fraction of the cards that were made for Samantha

J

The beautiful Samantha