How new book trolleys allow volunteers to bring patients like Sallie moments of distraction and relief.

Thanks to you, patients like Sallie can find comfort in a book, immersing themselves in stories that provide solace during challenging times.

The hospital library service is offered weekly across Leicester’s Hospitals, providing a wide selection of reading materials, including fiction, non-fiction, word searches, crosswords, magazines, and newspapers.

This cherished service has been made more efficient with the introduction of three new library trolleys, funded by your generous support. These trolleys are lighter and easier to manoeuvre through the wards, a significant improvement over the old trolleys that were donated from a local library years ago and allow the team of volunteers to get books easily on to the wards for patients to read. The old trolleys were heavy and difficult to steer, making it challenging for volunteers as they visited around 300 patients across ten wards each week.

Across three hospital sites, a dedicated group of volunteers bring this joyous service to life. Each year, they hand out over 1,600 books to patients, ensuring that everyone has access to a world beyond their hospital bed. Volunteers, like Madonna and Marium, choose to spend their spare time making a difference in the lives of others. Both are known for their caring and professional approach, taking the opportunity when delivering the books to chat with patients, ask about their reading preferences, and even take requests.

The trolleys bring more than just books, they offer a unique way for the volunteers to engage with the patients and make meaningful connections.

Madonna is a recent graduate and has been volunteering for the last four months. She said “I feel incredibly privileged to bring a little bit of comfort to patients and see smiles on the faces of people who can sometimes be very poorly.” For patients like Sallie from Whitwick in Leicestershire, the service has been a wonderful addition during her stay. Sallie found herself in need of emergency care at Leicester Royal Infirmary following a serious fall. The news of a blood clot behind her knee was worrying, but the library service offered a welcomed distraction.

Sallie is deeply grateful for this service, which reminded her of the simple pleasures of reading during a challenging time. “There’s nothing better than holding a book in your hands and becoming engrossed in a story. I was so pleased when the volunteers unexpectedly arrived to offer me some great books to read. It really took my mind off the bad news I received earlier” Sallie explained

Thanks to your thoughtful gifts, our volunteers no longer need to struggle with outdated trolleys. This improvement has not only made their job easier but has also allowed them to spend more time engaging with patients, bringing moments of light relief and joy to those who need them most.