Paediatric community nurses who can no longer visit their patients at home dance outside sick childrens' houses to Baby Shark to cheer them up

Tina Pitchford, 51, and Claire Cook, 44, know just how much of an impact some of the smallest things can have in their work on the Sunderland Paediatric Community Nursing Team.

Their key role sees them caring for children with life limiting or life threatening conditions living in Wearside, so that they can provide some respire to their parents.

Tina and Claire visit around 10 children each week, building close relationships with the families.

But as the coronavirus lockdown continues, the visits have had to stop in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

However, Tina and Claire wanted to make sure that the children knew they were still in their hearts, coming up with a special take on the Baby Shark dance to surprise the families.

Visiting a total of 15 youngsters on April 6, the pair repeatedly performed the routine from a safe distance and left activity packs on the doorsteps of each home to keep the youngsters entertained.

Tina, from Seaham, said: “I was driving to work when I thought; ‘what can we do to cheer these kids up?’

“I came up with the idea of the Baby Shark dance as a way of doing something nice to cheer the families up.

“A lot of these families have been in isolation for five weeks now because the kids are so vulnerable.

“So we wanted to do something a bit different to raise spirits and have a bit of a giggle.”

One mum Amy Jameson Howes, whose daughter Aoife, six, has complex health needs, said the visit made the world of difference to the family.

Amy, 34, from Pennywell, who runs charity The Special Lioness, along with Claire Stewart, 41, said: “They are part of an amazing team and deserve some credit for going above and beyond at this difficult time.

“Aoife certainly enjoyed her visit and even tried to sing along.

"These ladies provide such amazing support to her and many other children.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.