Austin's tour at Kingston Hospital Blood Sciences Department

In May, Harvey's Gang was contacted by a patient's mum who wanted her son Austin to attend a tour at his local hospital laboratory to understand what was happening to his sister's blood tests.

At the time, no Harvey's Gang tours were running at Kingston Hospital. But after reaching out to IBMS members there, we were able to organise a tour, as the laboratory manager David McIntyre and his team were happy to help.

Following the tour mum, Celine, wrote:

I just wanted to say THANK YOU all so much for organising such a fantastic lab tour for Austin last week!

What can I say it was just absolutely brilliant! Austin was totally captivated and is still talking about it! It was such a great way of demonstrating to us all what happens to Mabel’s bloods when they are taken and how the scientists do the different tests. He loved watching the machines at work and was super excited to have been able to help process some of the tests himself and use the microscope.

I know that you haven’t run these tours before but from our perspective I would say it was a great success and would definitely recommend it for other families with children being treated at the hospital. 

I just also wanted to say a massive thanks to Harvey’s Gang and IBMS for your roles in getting this set up. It’s been a scary and confusing time for us all and this put such a massive smile on Austin’s face which has been amazing to see.