“I was born and bred in Sheffield – giving back to the city I grew up in makes everything worthwhile.”

“I was born and bred in Sheffield – giving back to the city I grew up in makes everything worthwhile.”

Chris Matthews – Senior Theatre Practitioner

Chris from Bradway trained at Sheffield Hallam University 2014 – 2016 and joined the Theatre team at Sheffield Children’s three years ago.

He said: “I never wanted to go anywhere else. There’s lots of opportunities to progress here and lots of support to help you along the way too.”

Theatre practitioners work in a variety of areas, such as surgery and recovery. In Chris’ case, he assists the anaesthetists during the operations.

He said: “I’ll wait in the room with patients when they’re brought in by a porter and then it’s about helping them get to sleep as smoothly as easily for the child. Making surgery as anxiety-free as it can be is really important. I enjoy being a bit silly before we go in to the Theatre; having a chat, telling jokes or playing a bit of Where’s Wally.

“I once got a card from a child. She was under local anaesthetic during her surgery, so to distract her from what was happening we were talking about Harry Potter for about half an hour. I’ve still got the card she sent afterwards to say thank you.”

Three years in to his role within the Trust, another of Chris’ highlights is the people he works with.

He added: “I don’t think of the people here as colleagues, they’re friends and family. When you start, you become one of the family. On my days off I often end up missing the people I spend my working days with.

“For me, Sheffield Children’s is quite a lot like the city of Sheffield, it’s a big place but manages to feel small in that you’re always running in to people you know!”

If you are interested in joining Chris and our welcoming Theatre team, take a look at our current vacancies page.