Solidarity: at the bedside of sick children

Their destiny probably should never have crossed. Together, they now walk a little bit of the bedside: Gilles alongside Williams and Annie with Adam. These volunteers brighten up the daily lives of the two hospitalized children. At the motor rehabilitation center for toddlers in Anthony, in the Hauts-de-Seine, children with serious pathologies are hospitalized for very long periods. They receive regular visits from their parents. But for Adam, things are a bit more complicated: he suffers from a malformation of his legs and digestive tract and his visually impaired mother cannot come to her son as much as she wants.

So the healthcare teams called on Annie, a volunteer with the Chaîne de l’Espoir. She keeps him company two to three times a week. A complicit relationship was born two years ago between the child and the retiree. “We take great pleasure in playing together”, says Annie. A very beneficial bond for Adam. “Annie stimulates her intellectual curiosity a lot. A curious child will better understand his illness and better accept life in an institution”, explains Dr. Corine Fourcade, pediatrician. At the Robert-Debré hospital, in the Paris region, Gilles has also chosen the path of solidarity. He accompanies William, 14, hospitalized for six months for leukemia. For hours, they remake the world and invent distractions in the teenager’s room. A week after the arrival of the France Télévisions teams, Gilles learned that William was finally released from the hospital.