Café Hope - Patient friends
Jamie McDonald, founder of Ward Buddies, tells Rachel Burden how the team spend time with young children in hospital when the parents or carers can't be there. The charity's trained volunteers might read stories, play games or just provide comfort through touch and presence.
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they're doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip and celebrating the people making the world a better place.
We're all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community or it might be about trying to make one life a little easier. And the key here is in the trying. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it's always worth a go.
You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Jill Collins
Sound Design: Cameron Ward
Editor: Clare Fordham
Published on Monday, 2nd February 2026.
Available Podcasts from Café Hope
We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Café Hope webpage.