It’s no secret that laughter is the best medicine. From cracking a joke with your friends to going to watch a stand-up show – the aim is always to make people smile. Although seeing the bright side of things when you’re living through dark times can be difficult, adding a little humour to your day can keep you going. 

Dark times call for beacons of hope, and what can give sick people, especially children, more hope than some clowning around? 

Dr Klown was created with the sole purpose of providing clown doctor services to children who are hospitalised at Mater Dei Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. Inspired by Patch Adams, the Clown Doctor that popularised the concept, a group of people came together to transform a dream into reality. 

With this journey starting back in 2010, the aim was always to bring a dose of fun into the young patients’ lives. It’s no secret that hospitals are no fun. The constant stream of nurses, tests, and machines beeping is just reminding the child that they are sick and not at home. 

Confusing, scary, and just straight-up boring are all adjectives which the wonderful Klown Doctors aim to remove from the children’s vocabularies. 

Klown Doctors are not real doctors, they’re just volunteers from all walks of life who have been artistically and physiologically trained to be the best Klown Doctors they can be. For them, it’s the child that matters, not the illness they are suffering from. 

Almost everything can be cured with laughter, but making people laugh requires a specific skill set. The Klown Doctors, after they have passed their physiological assessment, will also go through thorough and ongoing psychological and artistictraining. With Sean Buhagiar and a number of other trainers, teaching aspiring Klown Doctors how to juggle, do magic tricks, how to hold their body, and so much more, the Klown Doctors are equipped to put a smile on anyone’s face. 

The two most important things about becoming a Klown Doctor are that you must treat the nose with respect and that you never break a promise you have made to a child. 

Dr Klown and the whole team has brought so much joy to the children at Mater Dei Hospital, that real doctors can now actually prescribe a Dr Klown visit. Apart from giving the kid something to look forward to, this Dr Klown prescription also means that this NGO is making an impact in people’s lives.

Dr Klown set out to give pockets of joy to those going through hard times, and they have successfully done so for the last 10 years! 

Just a smile is enough for the Klown Doctors to know that they have helped. During the pandemic, their clowning needed to take on a different format. Shifting to online clowning did have its challenges, but each Klown Doctor will tell you that it was worth it as soon as they saw a child smile. 

Improvising, playing with the moment, and thinking on your feet are all aspects which a good Klown Doctor needs. With Dr Klown being a non-profit organisation, all that is done as part of this organisation is completely free. Doing all of this work and spreading this joy to the children and their families at the hospital is the only thing that Dr Klown cares about. 

Tag someone who loves to laugh!