Starlight Children’s Foundation

Delta visits patient with Captain Starlight at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne on Christmas Eve in 2019.

Delta continues to serve as a proud Ambassador for Starlight Children’s Foundation.

When a child is seriously ill play, fun and laughter often disappears, and in its place is stress, pain and fear.But being really sick shouldn’t mean missing out on the fun of childhood.  We all know what happens in childhood lasts a lifetime and that happiness matters, especially when it comes to positive health outcomes. While health professionals treat the serious illness, Starlight Children’s Foundation is there to deliver the fun and help improve sick kids’ resilience, confidence and overall well being. Their vision is that everyone has a happy childhood, even if they experience serious illness or hospitalization.

Starlight Children’s Foundation believes there’s more to treatment than medicine. Since 1988, they’ve partnered with Australian health professionals to develop programs based on positive psychology principles that support the ‘total care’ of children and teens.

Research shows sick kids and teens face different challenges to adult patients and are entitled to play, imagine and dream so they can continue to develop physically, mentally and socially. Starlight works in partnership with healthcare professionals and their programs facilitate family-centred connections to help care for the whole family unit.

Their programs embrace the principles of positive psychology where fun is an important factor in contributing to overall wellbeing. Starlight Children’s Foundation provides distraction from fear and pain, helps sick kids create positive emotions, encourage social interaction, assist with identity formation and build self-esteem and empower young people to embrace their uniqueness and creativity. All of Starlight programs are based on need and are underpinned by the best available evidence. They are constantly evaluated to reflect the dynamic nature of healthcare services.

For more information, please visit: https://starlight.org.au/