Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity Reaches Target On Its £1m MediCinema Appeal
Just four months after launching the £1m MediCinema Appeal to bring a fully accessible cinema to the hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity with the MediCinema charity, are calling it a wrap, having reached their target to build.
Every year, the hospital cares for 100,000 of the UK’s sickest kids. Of its 40,000 annual inpatients, over 7,200 (approx. 20%) stay for up to three consecutive weeks, with just under 700 having to stay even longer. These lengthy stays can impact an entire family’s physical and mental health, with patients often feeling isolated from their parents, siblings and friends.
MediCinema is a BAFTA award winning charity which builds and operates cinemas screening the latest films inside NHS hospitals across the UK. These cinema experiences provide meaningful respite from the challenges of the wards, improving wellbeing for thousands of both long and short-term patients and their families.
The £1m appeal was launched in June, with £400,000 of pledges already secured from Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s visionary network of Changemakers – made up of some of the region’s top business leaders, companies and entrepreneurs – and £285,000 pledged by MediCinema’s corporate and Trust supporters. The remaining amount was raised in record time from the public appeal, meaning building work can soon begin to bring the new MediCinema to life and help provide positive experiences for thousands of patients and their families at the hospital every year.
As well as funds to cover the build of the cinema, the £1m appeal target included the operational costs to keep it running for the first 12 months. To ensure the hospital can provide magical experiences for patients and families for years to come – at no cost to them or the NHS – the charity will be keeping the appeal open to continue fundraising.
We’re absolutely delighted to help bring a cinema to our hospital providing a little bit of magic during a patients stay. We know it will help reduce feelings of isolation for our children, allowing the whole family to come together for a shared experience, creating positive lifelong memories of their time spent in hospital. We’re thrilled to have reached this phenomenal target – and in just four months! It’s a testament to the generosity of the public, local businesses and philanthropic organisations, who have all put their full support behind the appeal. We’re so very grateful.
Mark Brider, CEO of Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity
We are truly grateful to everyone who has supported so far. This generosity will help us bring the escapism and joy of film and cinema to thousands of young patients and their families during some of their most difficult times. Birmingham Children’s Hospital is a remarkable place, and we are proud to be creating our newest MediCinema here in the Midlands.
Colin Lawrence, MediCinema CEO
The new MediCinema will be housed in the hospital’s current lecture theatre, a non-clinical space, which will be converted to become a state-of-the-art cinema during evenings and weekends, while remaining as a place for staff training and education during the day.
The cinema will be complete with 86 purpose-made, movie-style seats and is designed specially to accommodate wheelchairs, hospital beds and medical equipment to ensure as many patients as possible can access the screenings. Once complete, it will be the largest MediCinema in operation, expecting to provide around 260 screenings per annum and putting smiles on the faces of an estimated 5,000 attendees every year.
It will be led by a Cinema Manager with MediCinema nurses and volunteers trained specifically to help run the service. It will also be supported by MediCinema’s central office team, who oversee operations and programming and deliver official film-themed activities to transform the hospital experience for patients.
Volunteer at our new MediCinema
We could not run our screenings without the help of 100s of volunteers at our cinema sites across the country. Volunteers are vital in helping to create a welcoming and safe environment, alongside the MediCinema Nurses. Their primary role is to assist in the transfer of patients to and from the wards, some of whom are wheelchair users or in their hospital beds.
If you are:
- Passionate about helping to improve the wellbeing of NHS patients through the power of film
- Willing to commit to volunteering with us for a minimum of 12 months from early 2026
- Able to volunteer at 2 screenings per month
- Within commuting distance to Birmingham Children’s Hospital
…then register your interest in becoming a volunteer at our newest MediCinema.
