![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763948605_27_db436fbf-7f97-42e8-a3ed-17005df8251b.jpeg\")
Jamie McDonald is launching a charity to help children isolated in hospital (Jamie McDonald\/PA)<\/p>\nJamie McDonald, 39, who is also known as Adventureman, has launched the charity Ward Buddies which aims to end emotional abandonment for children in hospitals.<\/p>\n
The charity\u2019s team will provide companionship and emotional support to young patients who find themselves alone on the ward \u2013 stepping in as a \u201cBuddy\u201d when loved ones cannot be by their bedside.<\/p>\n
Ward Buddies\u2019 medical experts, who include paediatric doctors and nurses and a child psychologist, describe unvisited children becoming withdrawn and depressed, with low moods and increasing behavioural issues over time.<\/p>\n
Jamie McDonald is launching a charity to help children isolated in hospital (Jamie McDonald\/PA)<\/p>\n
They said some children even struggle to recover physically or to adjust back to normal life after discharge, carrying the emotional scars of their hospital isolation.<\/p>\n
Mr McDonald, who suffered from a debilitating immune deficiency and the potentially fatal spinal condition syringomyelia as a child, spent the first nine years of his life in and out of children\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n
Years later, through therapy, Mr McDonald discovered that those isolating hospital stays \u2013 when his parents were often unable to visit \u2013 had left him with lasting feelings of abandonment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo parent wants to leave their child alone in hospital,\u201d said the former tennis coach, from Gloucester.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut many are kept away due to work, distance, or caring for other siblings.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctors and nurses do their best, too, but they\u2019re stretched thin. It\u2019s nobody\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the result is children being left utterly alone in their hour of need. Ward Buddies bridges that gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about making sure care of the heart is treated alongside care of the body for children during recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the heart of Ward Buddies is a small team of specialist staff \u2013 including a doctor, an assistant psychologist, and a peer support worker \u2013 who bring professional expertise to each child\u2019s emotional care.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4feb4811-3f83-4e65-8822-0ac449f7c95b.jpg\")
The Ward Buddies charity will help children isolated in hospital during admissions (Jamie McDonald\/PA)<\/p>\n
The charity\u2019s launch follows a successful, six-month pilot at Birmingham Children\u2019s Hospital and is now appealing for donations to expand the programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re calling on the wonderful people of the UK to donate, volunteer, and share our story,\u201d said Mr McDonald, a father-of-three.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe truly believe we can end this hidden crisis \u2013 but it\u2019s a long road ahead, and we\u2019ll need the nation\u2019s help to get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single donation, big or small, makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s show kids alone in hospitals that they are not forgotten, they are not alone, and we are ready and willing to do what we can to get them the emotional support they so desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McDonald is planning on dusting off his Adventureman superhero suit for a new, epic, fundraising challenge this December to rally support and donations for Ward Buddies.<\/p>\n
In 2019 he broke a Guinness World Record for the distance covered in a week on a treadmill.<\/p>\n
That came weeks after he completed a 5,500-mile, 210-marathon, coast-to-coast fundraising run across the US, unsupported.<\/p>\n
He has previously run across Canada dressed as superhero The Flash.<\/p>\n
Mr McDonald came to prominence in 2012 when he cycled 14,000 miles from Bangkok to Gloucester on a \u00a350 secondhand bike.<\/p>\n
Just weeks after returning to Gloucester, he set a world record for cycling nonstop on a static bike.<\/p>\n
In February 2013, two months after setting that world record, he began his run across Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie McDonald, 39, who is also known as Adventureman, has launched the charity Ward Buddies which aims to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-589848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115602143734852348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}