CHILDREN will have a trip around the world to ease their anxiety while waiting to go into theatre at Royal Bolton Hospital thanks to a new art installation.

Bolton College students have painted a colourful map of the world to help make surgery a little less daunting for youngsters.

Neal Ashurst, Senior Operating Department Practitioner, said the artwork would make a difference to hundreds, if not thousands, of patients they see. He said: “The benefits of artwork for patients are that we can use it as a distraction tool. We can ask people where they have been on holidays. We’d ask children ‘can you see the rhinoceros’, ‘where does it come from’. It helps build a rapport.

“I’d like to say a very big thank you to the college and I hope they understand the impact this will have on many hundreds of patients, probably thousands of patients over its lifetime in helping ease anxiety and making it a far friendlier place when you come for surgery.”

Art and design students who had taken part in the project visited the hospital to see their work on the wall.

Nicola Karwat, Curriculum Leader at Bolton College, said: “The college wanted to get involved because we saw it was great opportunity for the students and the hospital to join in a joint project for work experience and to produce something amazing for such a good cause.”

Amanda Forrest, Art and Design Lecturer, added: “The students themselves loved the idea of working with the hospital. Some of the students have had previous memories of coming here when younger, had families, siblings who have been in the hospital. They were really excited to work with the hospital but also being able to design something that would be in a room and help other younger children, to calm them.”

Students at Bolton College came up with a number of designs but the winning wall art went to the students who penned a map of the world. It was made into a vinyl that sits in the anaesthetic room. The art includes different designs that depict many different parts of the world, including Irish dancing shoes for Ireland and a martial artist for Japan.