The children and young people in children's hospitals in Barcelona enjoyed more moments of excitement, hope and emotions on the day after Three Kings Day, as the FC Barcelona Women first-team players paid them a visit. This socially-minded action is organised by the FC Barcelona Foundation each year to coincide with the festive period. ​​The initiative is part of the Foundation's Blaugrana Bracelets initiative, which aims to improve the emotional well-being of children and adolescents and their families while they are in hospital.

These visits to children's hospitals bring big doses of Barça magic to children with diseases, some of which are very serious. The medical community concurs that these kinds of experiences have a very positive impact on patient mood and can help to handle the disease better.

Led by vice-president for the institutional area and Foundation board member Elena Fort, the director responsible for women's football Xavier Puig, and the managing director of the Barça Foundation Dra. Marta Segú, the blaugrana party set off from the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in several coaches to travel to different hospitals. FC Barcelona Foundation patron Antoni Esteve also joined them.

The players visited five hospitals (Sant Joan de Déu, Vall d'Hebron, Sant Pau, Germans Trias i Pujol and Hospital HM Niños) and two residential centres for families from outside of Barcelona and/or Catalonia who have children receiving extended treatment for cancer (Casa Xuqlis, Casa Ronald McDonald).

The children were surprised and full of joy on seeing players such as Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Irene Paredes, Patri Guijarro, Claudia Pina and others in person. They all showed great warmth with these children and young people, who received different gifts from the blaugrana players, having photos taken and sharing magical moments with them. The health care professionals from the different hospitals also spent some time with the women's football players in recognition of the great work they do with the children, work that is often tough and difficult to deal with, especially when the children have serious diseases and uncertain prognoses.

The Foundation organises visits by the different FC Barcelona professional sports teams to hospitals throughout the season to support and motivate hospitalised children. The main objective with these visits is to bring excitement, hope and positive emotions to children going through particularly difficult moments. Every professional team at the Club – basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey – in addition to Barça Atlètic and the U19 football sides, take part in these socially-minded actions throughout the season, and in Foundation projects as part of the "Christmas all year round" campaign.

Blaugrana symbol of support

The blaugrana bracelets were out in force during this visit, having become a blaugrana symbol of support. The Blaugrana Bracelet programme promotes actions in collaboration with children's hospitals in Catalonia and around the world with the aim of making care for children and young people with serious diseases both warmer and friendlier depending on the needs of each hospital and during home palliative care.

Appealing and happy spaces and settings are also created, which help during the disease, and innovative complementary therapies to traditional treatment are promoted, such as animal-assisted therapy with dogs, sports, art among others, which can help improve the situation during the evolution of the disease.

The players visited the following centres:

Hospital Sant Joan de Déu / Mapi León, Claudia Pina, Irene Paredes, Pere Romeu
Hospital del Vall d'Hebron / Alexia Putellas, Vicky López, Patri Guijarro, Cata Coll
Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol (Can Ruti) / Salma Paralluelo, Esmee Brugts, 
Hospital de Sant Pau / Caroline Graham Hansen, Martine Fenger, Laia Alexandri
Hospital HM Nens / Ona Batlle, Clara Serrajordi, Aïcha Cámara
Casa Xuqlis / Gemma Font, Sydney Shertenleib, Kika Nazareth
Casa Ronald McDonald / Eva Pajor, Txell Font, Carla Julià

 

Força Barça