Childrens Heart Home Lancing

I was an inpatient at this hospital for 16 months from 1950 until 1951. Unlike you I found it to be a pretty miserable experience. Some of the nurses were super and I particulary liked one called Judy Ball. But there were a couple that were horrid. There was a good relationship between all the young patients, and I really missed them when I first came home. The ward I was in was pretty basic and looked like a large green house. Visiting was the first and third Sunday of the month only. Letters home were always read by staff before they could be posted. I was there when there was a break out of polio in Brighton and visitors were banned for three months. Looking back this was rather hard but I suppose with hindsight it was the right thing to do. The food was pretty awful and the Matron was incredibly strict. The hairbrush on your bottom was the punishment for "being naughty' My heart problem was caused by rheumatic fever. I have been hospitalised several times because of side effects caused by this. But I have managed to still be around and have two lovely daughters four grandchildren and a great grandson. I still think back about my stay in Lancing. It really doesn't seem that long ago. Where do the years go.

I was here for about 7 to 8 months in 1948-49 and was 11 years old. I didn't have rheumatic fever but a lot of the children did. I had some sort of nervous complaint. I remember enjoying my stay there on the whole although I did miss beginning my Secondary School in the September of 1948. I always remember being forced to eat stewed marrow with my meals most days - I have refused anything to do with marrow since! I finally came home when someone contacted diptheria and I had been immunised. I don't remember the Matron but the nurses were always singing which made us sing too.
Jean Bolton