1. Victor Ortiz
Production Students Work With Children’s Hospice
This term, students in Clive Tonge’s Television Commercial’s class were given a
difficult and rewarding challenge. For their final project they were to work alongside the Eden
Valley Children’s Hospice, creating and filming commercials to help them raise money. Eden
Valley is the only Children’s Hospital in the Cumbria area and provides help to children of many
ages with a wide range of disabilities and illnesses. After looking into creating a commercial and
realizing they could not afford it, the Hospice instead turned to the production department at the
University of Cumbria’s Brampton Road Campus. Students were told about the task at the start
of the term and were also given the added incentive that the commercial chosen by the Hospice
would be aired on television as well. After visits to the Hospice and meeting staff and patients,
students were put into groups and asked to create ideas to pitch to representatives from the
hospice. One student, Kofi Kufuor, described the experience stating, “The day that we all had to
present our ideas to Eden Valley was nerve racking for everyone, and we wanted to show them
how important it was to us that we get across their message in the right way.” This process of
pitching and working with clients simulates what many of the students will be doing in their post
university production careers. Students have been hard at work filming on location at the
Hospice for the past few weeks and though some have found some difficulties with shooting,
many have stated that the work being done is very fulfilling. Ruwaydah Seid, another student
reaffirmed this stating “There are many challenges that come with working with children with
special needs and disabilities, so many of us had to go back in and shift our ideas around a bit,

2. but ultimately we learned to work around it and still managed to get a lot of great footage, this is
really about showcasing the kids and I think we all have done our best at that.” Eden Valley’s
website states that the annual costs of providing their services is about 2.7 million pounds, they
receive about 25% of that from the NHS, which leave them with the task of raising another 1.95
million pounds a year to continue running the hospice. The hope of both the Hospice and the
students is that the exposure gained by the winning commercial, will help increase the rate and
amount of donations.