Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger 2022!
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is China's most important festival and celebrates the beginning of a new year on the lunar calendar, representing the desire for new life (Spring is coming!). It is a great time to celebrate the past and look forward to the future.
2022 is a year of the Tiger, starting from February 1st, 2022. The Tiger is known as the king of all beasts in China. The zodiac sign Tiger is a symbol of strength, confidence, and braveness.
Celebrating the past
In the past year (2021), Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) International and Private Care (I&PC) teams successfully helped many Chinese patients and families through remote consultations and also welcomed them in London for treatment. We’re very glad to see that more and more Chinese patients with complex, rare, and even ultra-rare diseases have been able to open new life chapters after the treatment at GOSH. In addition, we received highly positive feedback on GOSH services from our Chinese families. For instance, GOSH multidisciplinary team treat a Chinese baby with a new ultra-rare endocrine condition and GOSH experts help a Chinese girl with a rare lymphoma open a new life chapter.
At GOSH, our friendly Mandarin-speaking staff members together with the wider professional teams, are here to provide comprehensive support and look after the Chinese families at every stage. To ensure the Chinese families’ referral journey with us without communication barriers is as smooth as possible, we offer high-value Chinese translation and interpretation services.
2021 was also a fruitful year for our partnership activities in China. GOSH paediatric experts were invited to participate various virtual events and top conferences and shared our expertise in childhood rare and complex diseases, strengthening mutual development in paediatric healthcare between the UK and China.
For example, in April 2021 a live virtual forum successfully took place between haematology teams from GOSH and Shanghai Children’s Hospital (SCH) in China, focusing on CAR T-cell therapy to treat childhood leukaemia. Also invited by China-Dolls Centre for Rare Disorders, the largest China’s charity supporting children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), the GOSH’s OI multidisciplinary team took part in a webinar in May, sharing the progression of the multi-disciplinary diagnosis, treatment, and research development at GOSH for OI patients. This webinar was watched by cumulatively over 1,500 participants, which received positive feedback and gave families with rare bone diseases hope for the future. In September 2021, three world-known GOSH consultants virtually presented in the 10th China Rare Disease Summit, the largest forum on rare diseases in China, in which they shared GOSH’s strengths and achievements in paediatric rare diseases, this included childhood heart disease, rare skin diseases and rare endocrine diseases.
Looking forward to Year of the Tiger 2022
Every year we celebrate Chinese New Year with our patients, families, and staff at I&PC. Beautiful red Chinese lanterns, red hanging decorations and New Year paintings featuring cute tigers have been hung at I&PC reception, Caterpillar outpatient, Bumblebee Ward and Butterfly Ward areas. Also, our creative play team organised many painting sessions with our patients. Ellie Henry, our play specialist at Caterpillar outpatients, did amazing wall art that celebrates the Year of Tiger at Caterpillar reception. Also, we have shared on social media and worked with Chinese partners to pass on our sincere wishes to the families, colleagues and friends based in China and all over the world.
In the upcoming year of the Tiger, we look forward to deepening the collaboration with Chinese partners, in terms of paediatric clinical, educational and research work. We welcome more Chinese paediatric peers and Chinese families visiting GOSH in the new year.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year of the Tiger!
