The newly decorated ocean themed isolation room at Kingston Hospital

Isolation rooms are used to keep a child separate from other patients when there’s a risk of spreading an infection, or sometimes when the child is particularly vulnerable to infections.

The idea to redecorate one of the isolation rooms on Sunshine ward, came from two 11-year-old girls, Polly and Lila, who wanted to fundraise because one of their friends had received support from Momentum when she was receiving treatment for cancer and had spent time in one of the rooms at Kingston Hospital.

Polly said: “In 2025, one of my friends was diagnosed with lymphoma. Thankfully she is now doing brilliantly, but treatment was tough, and my friends and I wanted to do things to support her. During her treatment, my friend was in an isolation room in Kingston Hospital. We wanted to see if we could make some changes to the room for children staying there in the future, so we asked Momentum if this was something they could help with if we raised the money. We created items including water bottles, tote bags and bookmarks, which we sold at an event my grandparents organised for friends and family. It was a huge success, and we raised a lot of money.”

Polly continued: “It has been lovely to see the results of our hard work and know that we have been able to help other children at a time when they need it. The ocean room looks amazing – it looks cosy and happy. There are incredible paintings of fish and animals in the ocean.”

Polly and Lila raised just over £2,000 from their fundraising efforts – fantastic! Polly’s grandfather, Chris Leach, is the Founder and Chairman of one of our long-term corporate partners, Air Charter Service, and the company very kindly donated another £2,900. The final amount needed to fund the project was covered by a generous donation from Tina Leach at the Jectus Charitable Trust.  

Talking about the new ocean room, Claire Murphy, Matron of Sunshine Ward, said: “The ocean themed room on Sunshine Ward is a wonderfully fresh and bright space for children and their families. We hope the newly decorated room provides a comforting environment for children and families, hopefully making hospital stays a little bit more comfortable at what can be a very overwhelming time. The room is used for children from the age of just a few weeks old, to teenagers up to the age of 17, so we are really pleased that the decoration reflects the needs of such a broad range of ages.  The marine life and colours that have been used are beautiful and instantly create a sense of calm when you enter the room.”

A huge thank you to Polly, Lila, Air Charter Service, and the Jectus Charitable Trust. Their amazing support is helping to make a difference to the experiences of children and their families who are receiving support at Kingston Hospital.

Momentum Children’s Charity is partnered with eight NHS Hospitals across London, Surrey and Sussex. Find out more here