York Hospital lab tour helps Abbie understand her healthcare...

York Hospital patient Abbie Hampshire is the first youngster to benefit from a private tour of its on-site laboratories, as part of a project which helps young patients and their families feel more comfortable with the hospital experience.

Young children often find hospitals frightening, but visiting a laboratory can ease their fears and offer reassurance, while giving staff a chance to meet the young patients whose samples they work with.

Eight-year-old Abbie, who has pulmonary hypertension, has regular blood tests at York Hospital which are then analysed in the laboratory.

She travelled with her parents, Ben and Andrea, and her two brothers from their home in Thirsk to meet the biomedical science staff who process and analyse her samples to help manage her condition.

Abbie got hands-on with the laboratory equipment by testing dummy samples and looking at them through a microscope.

Abbie said, “The scientists at the hospital were really kind to me and helped me to be able to see everything there. You can learn so much about your blood and I feel braver now when I have my blood taken.

“I enjoyed wearing a white laboratory coat, writing out a label for my blood test sample, and finding lots of different equipment around the laboratory and ticking them off on my sheet of paper.

“At the end, I got a special certificate and a teddy bear in a white lab coat, and I took them both to school to show my teachers and friends in assembly. It made me feel very happy."

















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