GOSH awarded international online honours: Great Ormond Street Hospital wins 1st place for children's website : Prime Minister congratulates all Cable & Wireless Childnet Award winners

London, Friday 25 April 2003: Great Ormond Street’s Kids & Teens website (www.gosh.nhs.uk/kidsandteens) won the Not for Profit category at the sixth annual Cable & Wireless Childnet Awards, held at the Science Museum in London last night. TV personality Carol Vorderman, and Lizo Mzimba from the BBC Newsround Team hosted the Awards ceremony.

The Great Ormond Street project was described by the independent panel of judges as “an outstanding example of how a hospital can create quality, authoritative information on issues relating to health in a fun, child-centred and accessible way.” [See Notes to Editor below for full list of judging panel.]

Great Ormond Street’s Kids & Teens site has been written by and with young people at the UK’s largest specialist children’s hospital. The interactive site provides a powerful platform from which children can share their hospital experience with others and learn about medical issues.

“This international Childnet Award is a great honour because it recognises how the hospital can use the web creatively to support children, as well as their parents, giving them access to health resources and an online community at the time of their illness.” said Gary Loach, children & families editor at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Child Health.

“The site caught our attention because of its simplicity, rich content for different age groups and strong visual identity,” explained the Awards judges.

The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP sent a message of congratulation to the winners in all four Award categories. He said: “The winners of the Cable & Wireless Childnet Awards 2003 truly bring the Internet to life - inspiring young people to express opinions, share skills and communicate with others around the world.

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that the Internet is a great and safe place, which can be used by people from all generations. The Awards demonstrate just what can be achieved via the Internet and I would like to pass on my sincere congratulations to the winners and to all of those who entered the Awards.”

In the Individual category, US teenager Heather Lawver's Harry Potter inspired Daily Prophet online newspaper (www.dprophet.com) came first. Willougby Elementary School from Canada won the Schools category (www.schoolcentral.com/willoughby4).

The “New to the Net” awards recognised two projects which are in their development stages. The IEARN project from Sierra Leone (www.childsoldiers.org) aims to encourage children who have been caught up in conflict, to share their experiences and a desire for peace. The www.Youngbiz.net project, developed by three teenagers from Egypt and USA, helps other young people seeking to start their own business.

This year’s Awards ceremony was held at the Science Museum's IMAX theatre, and was attended by more than 500 guests, including Stephen Timms MP, UK minister for e-commerce, several national ambassadors, and more than 100 young people from around the world.

The Awards, run by children’s Internet charity, Childnet International and supported by Cable & Wireless, recognise the innovation and creativity of young people, teachers and not-for-profit organisations that have developed websites which benefit young people around the world.

For further information please contact:

Stephen Carrick-Davies, Childnet International, Tel: +44 771 245 1859
Joe Franses, Cable & Wireless, Tel: +44 20 7315 4489 or +44 7961 338 721
Ed Knight, Cable & Wireless, Tel: +44 20 7315 6759
Or see the Awards website: www.childnetawards.org