Our Children's ward and outpatients department have been celebrating two donations.
1) Supermarket Sainsburys have been in to donate Sport Relief gear to amuse our younger patients on the Children's Ward at CRH.
2) A Mum who taught Corrie’s Dev and pop legend Donny Osmond how to do Bollywood has donated books to our children's outpatients units based on dance.
Salma Zaman, a mum-of-five from Fartown, has written two books for youngsters – one based on her own son who has autism. He has been a patient at HRI for nine years and as a thankyou Salma dropped some copies in to the children’ outpatient department at Acre Mills.
Her book are called “Bollywood Princess” and “Help, I can’t do without my Bangra pants” which is based on her son, Amaan, who is nine. It features a little boy who slips and trips yet overcomes this take part in a top dance contest.
Salma, said: “ My books are about living your dream and having belief in yourself. We all are all different and we all have our own magic in a unique way.” She I soon to be taking part in the Huddersfield Literary Festival and also at a Children’s Reading Festival in Blackburn.
Salma’s background is as a dance teacher and she once featured in a Boxing Day Coronation Street in a big Bollywood dance scene. She also appeared in Donny Osmond show called Identity where contestants had to guess the profession of his guests.
She tours children’s group with her books and takes with her dressing-up gear and scarves with bells so they can try out new ways of dancing. She adds: “ They come alive and end up bouncing around the room and enjoying it so much. The energy and passion just flows from.”
Her husband Sal proof reads her books as she wants to pitch them just right – especially the one based on her son’s experiences.
**Her books are available from Waterstones online and www.salmasbollywoodacademy.com
Paediatric nurse Steve Shaw said: 'We are very grateful to Salma, for thinking of the work we do in children's outpatients when she wrote these books and will put the copies she has donated to good use. We use books a lot in clinic, especially to help us distract children having painful procedures, such as blood tests and these will be a welcome addition to our repertoire, as well as being a positive read for children awaiting their appointments."