There are lots of ways to help which are detailed on our website but most new volunteers follow the “3 easy steps”
1)      Click on ‘Find Pals’, select a child and read their page
2)      Send a cheerful card, letter, email, or little gift to the child via address on their page
3)      Sit back and know that a child’s day will be brightened because of YOU

We have a guide to help you write to the children, you can read it here.

Each family has their own forwarding address which can be found on that families page. Please don’t send post for the families to our PO BOX as we have to pay the postage again to forward it on. We do not give out home addresses.

We use the term “Pals” to refer to the seriously ill children and teenagers we support. We believe it is very important to include siblings, as they can often feel left out when their ill sibling receives more attention. In some cases, they may also be separated from their Mum or Dad for a long period if their sibling is in hospital far from home. We want siblings to feel just as important as the Pal. You can read one Post Pal family’s account of how your post supports not only their ill son but also his distressed brother and sister here

Please see our donate page for information on how to donate. We use donations to send cheerful post to the children ourselves (last month we spent £2000 on lovely gifts that had 75% off the original price), provide days out, buy stamps, and provide the Pals with treats. Some of the things we have recently used donations for are paint your own tea sets, helium balloons in a box, sleep over kits, two Christmas hampers for families spending Christmas in hospital, a bar of chocolate for a Mum isolated in hospital with her child, pillowcases with art work designed for each child individually, stickers, stationary sets, Lush gift sets, cuddly toys, craft packs, the Dottie project, regular cards and activities, games that can be played in bed and so much more! We are also grateful for donations of stamps, toys, cards, tickets, experiences and gifts either from individuals or from businesses.

Post Pals is run solely by volunteers. The 2 main people involved in the day to day running of Post Pals have health problems which means Post Pals is run from beds, either ones at home or in hospital. For this reason emails take a lot longer for us to respond to than if we were well. We are all volunteers, no one is paid, so your donations go straight into making the children smile.

The criteria for becoming a Pal is:

Living in the United Kingdom
Aged between 3 and 17
Has: a life-threatening or terminal condition, or has frequent long hospital admissions, or suffering severe burns/major injuries
Would enjoy letters/post

If you feel your child meets this criteria, our application forms can be found here

Sadly, some of the children we support pass away. When this happens, we move them onto the memorial page and make a post on our news page. If the child has siblings, we ask that people carry on sending post to them until their family feels it is time to move on. We also hold a memorial event for the families every two years.

When writing to a child who has lost a brother or sister, just keep the conversation upbeat and talk to them as you would any other child.

Anyone of any age can write – you don’t even have to be human! One of our most popular writers is a cuddly toy called Dottie! Our youngest volunteer was a toddler who drew pictures to go on a child’s hospital wall and our oldest was 106 (they knitted some finger puppets for the Pals)! The children also love hearing from people in other countries.

Generally the rule on hospital wards is no plants or flowers, as they can release spores in the water into the air. When a child is having a bone marrow transplant, envelopes and parcels have to be opened outside the Pals room and the contents taken in (because of the possible risk of germs on the parcel/envelope) and all items have to be wiped daily with alcohol wipes, so any pictures or such items should be laminated if possible or they can be displayed in clip frames. Cuddly toys have to be brand new (because of infection risk), clothing or quilts have to be pre washed, tumble dried and then sealed in polythene bags to avoid infection. Patients are also not allowed food and drink from outside until their new immune system returns – they are on a “clean diet” prepared in a special kitchen. Some great gifts include DVDs, audio books/music, soft new blanket, decorations that can be wiped and things to keep families entertained whilst confined to one room. We put a message on a Pals page when infection control is needed and remove it when the restrictions have been lifted.

Please tell anyone and everyone you know about Post Pals, we rely on people hearing about us and sending post to Pals. However please only send links to people and not the child’s details, this is very important as we need to control how the information is used i.e. an email or Facebook message can be passed around years after a child has got better or passed away. You can read about Craig Shergold, a boy who had a brain tumour in the 80’s and still receives thousands of cards a year due to messages being passed around. Most of our volunteers have found us through people posting on forums and blogs, it only takes a couple of minutes to spread the word about Post Pals and can make a big difference.

Post Pals collects all used postage stamps including common, special and international stamps which we use to raise funds for Post Pals. For details please see here

Post Pals Plus is a small section of the website for our Pals who have turned 18 but still need support. There is very strict eligibility: it is only for terminally ill Pals or those who are house or bedbound, and only for Pals who were already on the site before their 18th birthday. Please continue to support these Pals with cheerful post, just as you would for younger Pals.