Artist gifts picture to Sheffield hospital due to Stanley's snake

It was the idea of his mum Emma Rose that four-year-old Stanley, from Ravensfield, designed a snake made out of 79 painted stones, and it became a lockdown-friendly activity for friends and family.

Heartless thieves however stole the stones and Emma, a senior radiographer at Thornbury Hospital, shared the family's distress at the theft on Facebook.

The community rallied to help and the snake came to life again with over 1,000 stones being donated, including from the police and MP John Healy.

Acclaimed Sheffield artist Joe Scarborough also contributed a stone and also pledged one of his pictures to each of the hospitals that Stanley's parents work at, after finding out they were both radiographers.

Stanley went along with his mum to Thornbury Hospital last week to unveil Joe Scarborough’s picture.

Emma said: “It has been really exciting for Stanley to come to Thornbury, especially as he was promised hot chocolate with his breakfast after unveiling the picture.”

Kosta Antoniou, executive director at BMI Thornbury Hospital, commented: “What a great end to a sad story.

“It was a lovely gesture by Joe Scarborough and we were delighted to accept a painting and give it pride of place.

“What made it even better was having Stanley unveil it for us.

“There were smiles all around, despite the masks.”

BMI Thornbury Hospital is a 64-bed hospital with four operating theatres. It provides a range of inpatient, outpatient and day-case specialties, including orthopaedic, spinal, general medicine, urology, ear nose and throat, and neurology, for routine and complex cases, and in 2017 provided services for almost 51,700 patients.

Diagnostic and specialist equipment on site includes MRI scanner, ultrasound, CT scanner, digital mammography and x-ray. The hospital employs approximately 200

healthcare professionals who provide services for NHS patients, for insured patients and for patients who choose to pay for their own care.

For more information or to make an appointment, visit www.bmihealthcare.co.uk

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