10-year-old patient Ella Lowton-Smith, from Atherstone in Warwickshire, joined other young patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital to officially unveil the hospital’s new charitably funded MediCinema, where they were treated to an exclusive preview of the new Disney and Pixar film “Hoppers”, ahead of its national cinema release on Friday 6 March.
The creation of the new, fully accessible, 84-seat MediCinema – the largest MediCinema in the UK – follows a £1m charity appeal by Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and MediCinema charity. The MediCinema creates a space where patients and families, who sometimes spend weeks and months in hospital, can spend quality time together away from the wards, providing meaningful respite, reducing feelings of isolation, anxiety and stress and providing some normality during what can be challenging times. The MediCinema will screen the latest films at no cost to the patients or the NHS.
The creation of this MediCinema was made possible thanks to support from the MediCinema charity’s Trust and corporate supporters, the Julia Rausing Trust and The Walt Disney Company, and £400,000 from Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s visionary network of Changemakers – made up of some of the region’s top business leaders, companies and entrepreneurs, plus further contributions from the public.
Red Carpet Opening for Patients
The red carpet was rolled out for patients at the MediCinema’s ‘premiere’ opening screening of Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film “Hoppers”. Upon arrival, the children were greeted by iconic duo Mickey and Minnie, which added to their excitement. The magic continued inside as patients enjoyed additional entertainment before ‘‘Hoppers’’ began. Following the screening, each patient left with a special gift from Disney to take back to their bedside, along with lifelong memories made.
Ella was one of those patients in attendance. Ella has been a heart patient at the Children’s Hospital since birth, having her first surgery at just five-days-old, after she was diagnosed with truncus arteriosus, a serious defect in which only one blood vessel leads out of the heart, instead of two. The surgery involved adding a tube to separate the blood flow. She had follow up surgery at 18 months and is due to have further surgery later this year to replace the tube that was added at birth. She’s currently in the hospital after an infection in the heart has left her needing an urgent course of antibiotics, which must be administered as an inpatient.
Her mum, Becky, said: “We’ve been in hospital for just over two weeks. It’s really tough for Ella to be away from home and from her little sister Olivia, so to have somewhere they can go and spend time together, away from the bedside, is so special.
“Ella is also a massive movie fan and we love going to the cinema as a family. We’ve been following the progress of the MediCinema for some time now, so to be here for the first screening is amazing. She’s been so excited about it and I know she’ll talk about it for weeks. We’re due to be in hospital for another three weeks while the infection clears, so I’m sure we’ll be back again to watch another film.”
Daljit Athwal, chief nursing and midwifery officer at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “To see the excitement on the faces of the children at the screening was pure magic. The MediCinema is already making a massive difference.
“We know lengthy stays in hospital can impact an entire family’s physical and mental health, with patients often feeling isolated from their parents, siblings and friends. This often affects their overall wellbeing and recovery. Our MediCinema will help change that and we feel so privileged to be able to provide this opportunity for our children.”
Mark Brider, CEO of Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “To see the ‘curtain go up’ on our new MediCinema is simply incredible. For our children to be transported from their clinical surroundings into a space where they can forget about being a patient for a short while, enjoying the latest Disney release with their family, is a gamechanger for every child’s experience at our hospital.
“We’re so very grateful to all our donors who really understood the impact our MediCinema will have on our patients and families and gave so generously to make it a reality.”
Paul Giggal, COO of MediCinema, said: “We are thrilled to open our latest MediCinema in this prestigious hospital, our first serving the Midlands community. Cinema has an extraordinary ability to transport and comfort us and we see the difference our shared screen experience makes to patients and their families in hospitals every day. We are very grateful to everyone who has donated and are looking forward to working closely with the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and its staff to ensure that as many patients as possible here can benefit from visits to the MediCinema.”
Lee Jury, Senior Vice President, Studios Marketing at The Walt Disney Company EMEA, added: “Disney has been proud to partner with MediCinema for decades, united by a belief in the power of movies to lift spirits and bring people together. Seeing that impact within a hospital setting is profoundly meaningful. Marking the opening of the new MediCinema in Birmingham with a screening of Disney and Pixar’s ‘‘Hoppers’’ underscores how important this milestone is for all of us. This cinema will provide patients and their families with moments of comfort and joy for many years to come.”
Inside Birmingham Children’s Hospital MediCinema
The MediCinema is housed in the hospital’s lecture theatre. It features 84 purpose-made, movie-style seats and is designed specially to accommodate wheelchairs, hospital beds and medical equipment, ensuring as many patients as possible can access the screenings. It is expected to provide around 260 screenings per annum and put smiles on the faces of an estimated 5,000 attendees every year.
It will be led by a Cinema Manager with MediCinema nurses and volunteers trained specifically to help run the service. It will also be supported by MediCinema’s central office team, who oversee operations and programming and deliver official film-themed activities to transform the hospital experience for patients.
The MediCinema at Birmingham Children’s Hospital is the next step in MediCinema’s longstanding collaboration with Disney. As part of its work with children’s hospitals around the world, The Walt Disney Company has proudly been a supporter of MediCinema for more than 25 years through its Movie Moments programme; which brings movie magic to patients, their families, and the medical staff who care for them.
As well as funds to cover the build of the cinema, the £1m fundraising appeal target included the local running costs for the first 12 months. To ensure the hospital can provide magical experiences for patients and families for years to come – at no cost to them or the NHS – the charity will continue to fundraise for this invaluable space.
The MediCinema will mainly run screenings for patients during evenings and weekends, while remaining available as a place for staff training and education during the day.
To find out more about the hospital’s MediCinema, or to donate to its ongoing fund, please visit bch.org.uk/MediCinema.
Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity:
Birmingham Children’s Hospital is a leading UK specialist paediatric centre, offering expert care to over 100,000 children and young people from across the country every year.
Delivering some of the most advanced treatments, complex surgical procedures and cutting edge research and development, the hospital treats one in five children from Birmingham and one in eight from the wider West Midlands.
Every patient and family at Birmingham Children’s Hospital will have been touched by the hospital’s charity in some way. As a result it continually strives to do more for the sick kids in its care, whether that’s a newly refurbished playroom or ward, a state-of-the-art piece of equipment or even a toy at Christmas.
For more information on Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, please visit www.bch.org.uk.
MediCinema:
MediCinema is a charity which improves the wellbeing and quality of life of NHS patients and their families through the power of the shared cinema experience and the magic of film. It builds and operates cinemas inside hospitals, equipped with space for beds, wheelchairs and medical equipment and shows the latest releases for free.
Its services demonstrably improve emotional, mental and physical health, reduce feelings of isolation, anxiety and stress, and increase patient resilience. At no cost to the NHS, since the inaugural MediCinema opened in 1999 at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, the charity has provided hundreds of thousands of unforgettable cinematic experiences to patients, their families and those closest to them, completely free of charge.
MediCinema operates cinemas in the following: Chelsea and Westminster, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children/Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Serennu Children’s Centre in Newport South Wales and the newest which opened at the end of 2024 in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. A new MediCinema at Manchester University NHS Trust’s Oxford Road hospital campus is due to open in the first half of 2026. A new MediCinema has also been announced for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, build date TBC.
MediCinema was honoured with BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award at the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards.
For more information about MediCinema, please visit: www.medicinema.org.uk
Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers”:
In Disney and Pixar’s all-new animated comedy adventure “Hoppers,” animal lover Mabel (voice of Piper Curda) seizes an opportunity to use a new technology to ‘hop’ her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals. As she uncovers mysteries in the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined, Mabel befriends charismatic beaver, King George (voice of Bobby Moynihan), and must rally the entire animal kingdom to face a major, imminent human-threat: smooth-talking local mayor Jerry Generazzo (voice of Jon Hamm). The all-star voice ensemble also features Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco and Meryl Streep. “Hoppers” is directed by Daniel Chong and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, with an original score by Mark Mothersbaugh. The film opens exclusively in cinemas on March 6, 2026.