Barnsley Archery Club volunteers at Sheffield Children's Hospital's fun activity day for children receiving cancer treatment and their families.
2025 marks the 13th year of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital ‘Do it for you’ event, held at the English Institute of Sport. Every November, staff from the Haematology and Oncology Departments and volunteers come together to host hundreds of young patients and their families. The team want the children to realise what they can do, not what they can’t, and to encourage them to be active. This year there were 15 different sports in attendance, all of which were fully inclusive, including archery, ice hockey, cheerleading, basketball, dancing, and more.
At the very first edition of the event in 2012, the hospital approached Barnsley Archery Club and asked them to take part and provide a have-a-go. Since then, archery has been a family favourite of the event, and people return year after year and some have even taken up the sport after discovering it at the event.
For the second year, ice hockey came along to provide a have-a-go, and one of their volunteers, Ben, is a para athlete for Great Britain. But before that, he was a patient at the children’s hospital, coming full circle and finding a love and career in his chosen sport.
Around 25 therapists, nurses, doctors, admin, and support workers from the hospital come in their free time to help run the event. Physiotherapist, Debbie Rowley, and her colleague, Dr Jenkins, were the people who first brought forward the idea for a sports day, and made it come to life as the event the patients know and love today. The idea has not only been adopted by eight other hospitals in the UK, but a physiotherapist in America has also taken the idea internationally.
Debbie told us: “We see a lot of these children when they’re really, really poorly in hospital, and what’s absolutely amazing is just seeing them be able to do stuff that kids should be doing. They should be able to ride a bike or play hockey or whatever they want to do, and it’s just nice to give them that opportunity. Physical activity builds confidence as well as being great for physical and mental health.
“This is one of my favourite days of the year, and I will volunteer every year. We are so lucky that we see such inspiring families all day, every day. That’s what we do as a part of our jobs, and to hopefully inspire them a little bit to do something is great.
“I was just speaking to a young person I saw as a baby, and now she’s 16 and has started working as a waitress. It’s just so nice to see that journey for people and hopefully we get to be a little part of that and support them.”
A dozen volunteers from Barnsley Archery Club came along to support, including Izzy and Adam Carpenter from the GB compound squad. Every patient who comes along has different requirements, some are wheelchair users and others have sensory differences for example, but no matter what, the club gets them shooting a bow. One of the other core Barnsley members, Gwen Smith, spoke to us about why she personally loves to come back to the event and why providing an inclusive sport experience is important.
Gwen said: “We’ve had people sat on chairs and stools on the shooting line. The most challenging one we had was a young, teenage girl who was blind and very hard of hearing. We tried all sorts of ways to get her to hit the boss, and her parent helped translate for us. She could hear the bang when the arrow hit the boss, and we made a makeshift tactile sight.
“For us it’s just about the smiles, and there have been a lot of smiles today. Some of the biggest smiles have come from the parents, not only when they watch their kids, but when they get to shoot too. I think that’s what makes this event different is that it’s not just for the kids, it’s for the whole family. It’s a support for all of them.”
Check out the event page here!
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