Discover Emmett’s Genies
Emmett’s Genies was founded to help bring some Magic into the lives of children with critical or life-limiting conditions. We work with our wish granting partners to enhance the experiences of these children and their families.
Emmett’s Story inspires our charity
Meet Emmett, the little boy that started us off on this magical journey…
Who we are
Part of our ethos, whilst feasible, is that Emmett’s Genies should be run entirely by volunteers with no paid staff. Our Trustees, Ambassadors and Volunteers work together as one team to promote, reach out and deliver various EG events, activities and services.
Amy Scullard
Amy Scullard
Chair and Founding Trustee
Amy first had the idea for Emmett’s Genies in September 2019; she put her ideas into action and by January 2020 she had recruited four other fantastic trustees. On the 11th January 2020 they had their first official trustee meeting.
Amy is the mother of the charity’s inspiration, Emmett, and therefore has lived experience of having had a child who is critically unwell and who also had a wish granted. Amy has two children, works in the NHS as a Neurological Physiotherapist, having qualified in 2009, and in her spare time, loves doing charity work, playing netball, travelling and spending time with her wonderful family.
David Chang
David Chang
Founding Trustee
Dave was the first recruited trustee of Emmett’s Genies and has been on the Trustee Board since the charity’s creation in January 2020. He is the father of two children. Daniel, his son, was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma and spinal cord compression trauma in 2018.
He is a Chartered Engineer with a background in English Literature and Creative Writing. He works as a project manager in the Engineering and Scientific Instrumentation industry. Dave is currently involved as an Associate Researcher in a UCL-led project in Paediatric Ambulatory Cancer Care.
Graham Pettit
Graham Pettit
Founding Trustee
Graham has been on the Trustee Board since the charity’s creation in January 2020.
He is an experienced banking professional. A highly accomplished strategic, performance, and risk management consultant.
Graham has also served as Trustee, Director and Chair of a small national UK children’s disability charity.
Zoe Scullard
Zoe Scullard
Founding Trustee
Zoe has been on the Trustee Board since the charity’s creation in January 2020.
She has an extensive academic and practical background in the management of clinical placements and the support of student nurses with disabilities in practice.
As well as being Emmett’s grandmother, Zoe has previously held positions as:
- Dean of Health Care (South), Health Education England
- Associate Dean Inter-Disciplinary Education, Health Education Thames Valley
- Principal Lecturer Practice Learning at Buckinghamshire New University
Joe Purnell
Joe Purnell
Trustee
Gemma Hall
Gemma Hall
Trustee
Gemma had been volunteering regularly for Emmett’s Genies for the last 18 months. Professionally, Gemma is a Senior Account Handler at a commercial insurance brokers; she has worked in insurance for 23 years in a mix of personal lines and commercial lines.
Outside of Gemma’s full time employment, she enjoys socialising with family and friends, holidaying with her husband, watching movies, playing pool and swimming. Gemma is also a very keen, albeit novice photographer and she also started learning Spanish in November 2022.
Tim Haines
Tim Haines
Ambassador & Advisor
After taking a degree in zoology, Tim Haines started his career as a medical journalist and went on to work in science programming at BBC Radio and TV. After producing shows for strands like Horizon and Tomorrow’s World, he created the VFX driven natural history series Walking with Dinosaurs which is rated as one of BBC’s top 20 shows of all time.
He then left the BBC and set up the production company Impossible Pictures and created both factual and drama series such as Prehistoric Park and Primeval. He wrote several books to accompany these shows and was awarded an honorary fellowship at Bangor University. Recently he created an immersive experience called Dinosaurs in the Wild which toured the UK but has now opened in Riyadh.
Rachel Millington & Tim Raidl
Rachel Millington & Tim Raidl
Ambassadors
Daniel Chang
Daniel Chang
Ambassador
Daniel, or Dan, but never Danny, was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma after being rushed into hospital with lower body paralysis in 2018. He was treated in the same ward as Emmett.
Dan is currently an A-level student, and is planning to start a Psychology degree in 2025.
In his spare time, Dan loves playing games. He is usually to be found either playing games, making up games, or programming games with his friends.
He also loves music, and live music especially. He often scares his dad by getting lost in rowdy mosh pits.
Emmett O’Farrell
Emmett O’Farrell
Born in 2015, Emmett O’Farrell is a cancer survivor and the inspiration for the charity.
Overview
The ultimate aim of EG is to create or operate a purpose built physical ‘Wish Village’ in England that will offer unique stays for respite, fun and creation of lasting memories for our beneficiary children, being those with critical or life-limiting conditions.
The only ‘Wish Village’ facility exclusively focussed on these children that we are aware exists presently, is a non-profit resort entitled ‘Give Kids the World’, based in Florida.
Another significant difference with EG is that from the outset our charity plans to evolve through bringing aspects and experiences of the ‘Wish Village’ to the beneficiaries.
At the outset of our charity, we put together and delivered ‘boredom busting’ packs, which also contain opportunities for the beneficiary children to draw or describe the types of accommodation, activities, characters etc. that they might imagine experiencing or meeting in the eventual physical wish village.
Our next step was to design and hold events, involving overnight accommodation and leisure facilities, where we try to give beneficiary children a unique ‘Year in a Day’ experience (such as celebrating Easter; Summer Holiday (pool) party; Halloween & Christmas Day), which they might otherwise not have been able to enjoy.
In parallel, we plan to gradually create a Virtual (‘on-line’) Wish Village, built and changed over time from the varied imagination, skills and input of these Wish Children, their families and friends aligned with that of our volunteers, empathetic organisations and other contributors of all types. As a starting point we are trying to purchase Virtual Reality headsets with appropriate apps that bring to our beneficiary children both ‘escapism’ and ways of experiencing the world and activities that might seem impossible to them given their medical prognosis.
By offering participation and technology-driven imagination-based opportunities to our beneficiary Wish Children, many of whom spend much time undergoing medical treatment and staying in medical facilities, EG hopes to:
- create pleasure, confidence and hope
- relieve boredom, reduce anxiety and boost mood
- unearth the power of positive thinking, having a sense of purpose and making a valued contribution
We envisage that the EG cloud-based Virtual Wish Village might eventually offer various secure ‘zones’ where we bring to these Wish Children and their families access to selected and bespoke content that helps them to:
- create and store their happy memories
- express the different elements of their imagination and see these “come to life”
- relax and enjoy playing suitable games via carefully selected apps or undergo fun experiences (potentially including using virtual and augmented reality) as well as participate in other relaxation and sensory activities such as music, drawing, visualisation and reading
To make this all happen, we work with our NHS, Hospice and other Charity partners. However, EG requires a range of volunteers who can contribute their time, knowledge, skills and other resources. Volunteers may include talented teenagers and undergraduates for example to help EG build, adapt or test suitable apps etc. and convert expertise and imagination into virtual and ultimately physical facilities.
As part of EG’s sustainability through the 21st century, we see co-design as a vital element in keeping up to date with fast changing technology and trends whilst remaining relevant to the mind-set of the children we hope to continually support, and the appropriateness of the eventual but ever changeable physical Wish Village.
In the words of Einstein, EG believes that “imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution” and our charity looks forward with excitement to harnessing this imagination towards the creation of its wish village.
Who we help
