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Kingfishers
Kingfishers was founded in 1935 to encourage children to raise money for their local hospital. Today we operate as a sub-committee of the Friends of King's College Hospital and work closely with hospital staff to help improve facilities for child patients at Denmark Hill to make hospital a better place for them. Our committee members are all local and have all been users of the fabulous paediatric facilities at King's!
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We organise an annual programme of fundraising events including a quiz night, party nights and Christmas wreath making. We are also supported by several local schools and encourage involvement from children and young people in the area.
Upcoming events
Quiz Night - Friday 21 November 2025
Our quiz night is held every year in November and is our major fundraising event. Typically we raise £6,000 that can be donated to the hospital. Departments that have benefited from this recently include the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Paediatric and Midwifery support team, the Palliative Care Unit, Nuclear Medicine and the Paediatric Emergency Department.
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The next Quiz Night will be held on Friday 21 November 2025, please come back later for more information.
Christmas wreath making - date to follow
The Kingfishers wreath making is a firm favourite in many diaries. We hold a session on a Friday morning in late November/early December to get everyone in the festive spirit.
Places are £55 each which covers all materials and refreshments. Please come back later for more information.
Why we do it
We aim to make children’s stays a little more bearable. We aim to bring some humanity and light relief into their lives when they’re going through stressful, scary or uncertain times.
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For the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, we’ve supplied baby positioning supports to provide some respite for parents and comfort for newborns, breast pumps and parent packs, feeding pillows for mums learning to breastfeed, and freshen up packs for parents who can find themselves a long way from home.
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We have funded over 2000 activity packs to be used by children in the hospital to keep them entertained while they wait for appointments for themselves or family members.
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We have supplied craft materials, board games, books, jigsaws, games consoles and wall-mounted TVs for children's wards.
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We fund books and equipment that can help teach children about their condition.
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We fund fold-away beds for parents who are desperate to be with their child.
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We have spent £2,000 on specialist books about grief for children whose parents or relatives are being cared for by the Palliative Care team, to help guide and comfort them.
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In 2016 we funded a ChargeBox for the Children’s Emergency Department (ED) and have since upgraded this and funded a ChargeBox for the Variety Children's Hospital (outpatients). Unplanned visits to ED are stressful, so being able to keep phones and devices charged helps reduce the anxiety of hospital visits. The ChargeBox is used around 1,100 times every month.
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We have funded small Christmas presents for children who come into the Emergency Department over the Christmas period
Our thank yous
We are grateful to our supporters who help us through providing services and raising funds
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Big Yellow Storage in West Norwood who provide us free storage for the materials and equipment we need to run our events.
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Dulwich College Events who support our Quiz Night
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Dulwich Prep and Senior who support our Wreath Making and the Year 2 boys at who undertake a sponsored swim for us
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The Friends of Herne Hill School who provided funding for a second ChargeBox​