Monkey, Helen’s and your stories
Hi, my name is Monkey.
I’d like to tell you the story of how I came into the world.
It all started when a little girl had to go into hospital for a serious operation when she was just 18 months old. Her mummy, Helen, wanted to reassure her that the hospital wasn’t going to be a scary place and that she shouldn’t be worried about going there, but Helen couldn’t find any books to help her little one understand what it would be like, so she wrote a storybook especially for her little girl with a toy monkey in the starring role as a hospital patient.
The storybook showed real photos of the monkey in lots of different places all around the hospital – with the machines and equipment that she would see, and the doctors and nurses. When she went into hospital for her operation, she already knew what to expect and she didn’t find it scary at all. And the storybook helped her Mummy and Daddy too by giving them a way to communicate with her – pointing at the machines in the photos that she would see around her, and making funny noises like the sounds she would hear in the hospital.
The doctors and nurses were surprised by how quickly she recovered from her major operation, and wondered whether it was due to her being so relaxed about her stay in hospital.
They really loved the storybook and wanted one they could use to help other children, so Helen set to work to create more storybooks.
The first storybook was created for the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton. The children, parents and hospital staff all thought it was great, so Helen started working on more books – that’s when I came into the world.
Since then, our series of tailor-made photographic storybooks, starring ‘yours truly’ as the patient, have helped lots of children and young people, supported Mums, Dads, carers and families during difficult times – at home, in schools and hospitals.
I’m looking forward to starring in lots more storybooks. Who knows where my next adventure will take me? It’s a big, wide world…
Lots of love from
Monkey
xx
