Thanks to a generous donation from two of Birmingham Hippodrome’s regular supporters, the theatre now has a compact folding mobile hoist allowing it to welcome even more visitors with accessibility needs.

Birmingham Hippodrome has been working with Acorns Children’s Hospice to provide children with life limiting or life threatening conditions access to theatre productions and specialist workshops. During these visits Birmingham Hippodrome learnt from parents that without the Hospice’s hoist it was difficult for some of them to come with their children.

Now, thanks to this generous donation, children and adults with complex accessibility requirements can be accommodated whenever they wish to visit, providing they pre-book the hoist with the theatre's box office. The Oxford Advance folding lift will allow visitors with limited mobility to attend more shows than ever.

Birmingham Hippodrome will continue to work with Acorns to provide even more opportunities for children with special requirements. They have already confirmed the Acorns Children’s Hospice family day for the much loved 2018 Pantomime. Rachael Magson, Head of Fundraising said:

“It is important to us that everyone has access to the great facilities, workshops and theatre performances we have on offer here at Birmingham Hippodrome. We value the relationship we have developed with Acorns Children’s Hospice over the past three years and this helped us to identify the need for our own hoist.

"Thanks to the kind donation from our supporters we can now accommodate children and adults who need extra support. This highlights how important donations are to us and the families we work with”.

Sarah Jasper, Children, Young People and Sibling Service Manager at Acorns, added:

“This is a wonderful donation and we are extremely grateful to Birmingham Hippodrome and the kind generosity of the supporters for helping this come to fruition. At Acorns we work hard to ensure the children we care for are offered the same experiences and opportunities as all other children. The installation of the hoist is the perfect example of that ethos.

"We are proud that, through our charity’s partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome, we will be offering even more opportunities to children with special requirements to access the wonderful facilities, workshops and performances.”