How baking is helping Hannah through spinal rehab - and raising money for hospital's £10m new wing

But for Sheffield Children’s Hospital patient Hannah Hull, spending time in the kitchen is all part of her recovery - and she’s using her skills to help raise money for the hospital’s £10m new wing.

Hannah, 15, was just six months old when her mother Caroline found a lump on the side of her spine, the first indicator of Kyphoscoliosis, a condition that means her spine curves not only from side to side but also from back to front.

Throughout her life she has had several surgical procedures to try to correct the condition, but at the age of 13, ten weeks after an operation to fit metal bolts on her spine, she suffered a cerebral spinal fluid leak which developed into meningitis, causing her to lose almost all strength and mobility in her legs.

For the last five weeks the teenager, who is from Appleby Magna in Leicestershire, has been receiving specialist rehabilitation on the neurosciences ward at the hospital, staying there on throughout the week and only returning home on weekends.

Part of her rehabilitation routine, which includes spending time on a tilt table to try and get her body used to straightening up, has been baking, as many of the skills involved require core strength, something she is working on developing.

She is already seeing improvements - and can now transfer herself from her bed to her wheelchair and giving her some new-found independence.

And her skills have come at the exact right time, as this Friday is the Children’s Hospital Charity’s Bake it Better day, where they are encouraging patients, families, schools and businesses to hold bake sales to raise money for its £10m new wing, currently being built at the site on Western Bank.

Mrs Hull said: “For Hannah it’s just been one thing after another. She’s really been through the wars.

“On the weekends Hannah comes home from the hospital and we do a lot of baking together. It’s helpful because, now that she’s in a wheelchair, she tends to lean on one side of her body. If she’s baking she’s got to hold the bowl with one arm and a spoon with the other so she can’t lean. She has to use her core muscles to hold herself up so it’s been like a physio aid that we can use at home.”

Hannah, who is hoping to take up wheelchair basketball further into her recovery, said baking during her rehab had been really helpful.

“It helps to do something different - and something that’s fun,” she said. “It takes my mind off things.”

Play specialists at the hospital say baking can help patients feel more at home and even help speed up their recovery.

Kevin Hartshorn, play specialist for the neurosciences ward said: “Often children on our ward will have to adjust from being actively mobile to spending a lot of time in a wheelchair.

“What we find with baking is that it can help with fine and gross motor skills and improve the strength of patients through things like mixing.

“It’s a way to talk about nutrition but a lot of the time it’s about putting something enjoyable back into the children’s days.”

There is still time to sign up for Bake it Better day at www.tchc.org.uk.