Yahoo News 35th runner in Grand National 2024 announced
An Alder Hey worker has been named the honorary 35th runner in the 2024 Randox Grand National.
Amanda Walker, a Play Specialist in the Accident and Emergency Department at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, has been given the honour this year for the world’s greatest chase. The Grand National takes place at 4pm on Saturday, April 13, at Aintree Racecourse.
Amanda has been a Play Specialist at Alder Hey for the last nine years. However studying for her Play Specialist qualification, Amanda’s career had always revolved around the care of children, including working as a nursery nurse, a nanny, and in a school where she looked after a boy with arthritis.
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As well as making the patients feel comfortable using hi-tech equipment, such as iPads and VR headsets, or some of the other age-appropriate toys available – it's her role to prep patients if they need further treatment, like a scan or a blood test. If this is the case, Amanda will use prep dolls, example medical equipment and even create storyboards to demonstrate to the patients the step-by-step process of their treatment, helping them to feel relaxed and reassured.
Explaining the passion she holds for her role, Amanda Walker said: "I love the job because you’re always a friend to someone. You can see a child who comes in so scared, and they can leave so relieved and happy, and being a part of that is great. When we’re speaking to the patients and their families, everyone is so worried and they don’t know what’s going to happen next, so to be able to make their experience a bit more pleasurable and make them feel a bit more reassured is what this job is all about."
Along with other members of the Play Specialist department at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Amanda will be representing Alder Hey at this year’s Randox Grand National Festival as guests of The Jockey Club, who are again helping to highlight the vital work of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Charity.
Amanda added: "I’ve got my hat ready! I’m very excited to be attending and am really looking forward to it, as well as being very proud to represent Alder Hey. A big thank you to Jockey Club for the opportunity, and for the support they’ve shown us throughout the years."
The Jockey Club first created the honorary runner berth for the Randox Grand National in April 2017 for five-year-old Neuroblastoma campaigner Bradley Lowery, who sadly died three months later. In 2018, the honorary place was given to three-year-old Edie Molyneux, who suffered from a rare brain tumour called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). "Spider-Ede" - as she was affectionately known due to her love of Spiderman - sadly died in October of 2018.
Alder Hey Children's Charity was given the honorary berth in 2019 and the race did not take place in 2020, due to COVID-19. The inspirational Liverpool teenager Lydia Barker was named as the honorary runner in 2021.
The then-19-year-old struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) for years but is studying to be a paediatric nurse and looks forward to a career helping other young people with mental health issues. Last year’s honorary runner berth went to Betty Batt, a then four-year-old girl who was born weighing just 650 grams and spent the first 13 months of her life in hospital.
Dickon White, The Jockey Club’s Regional Director for Aintree Racecourse and the North West, said: "Aintree’s relationship with Alder Hey is an extremely close one which now stretches back over two decades.
"We are delighted to strengthen it even further by naming Amanda Walker as the honorary 35th runner in the 2024 Randox Grand National in recognition of her outstanding work as a Play Specialist. It is also tremendous news that a race will be run in Alder Hey’s name on Ladies Day, following on from ever-popular visit by jockeys to the hospital in the morning."
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