Tunbridge Wells Hospital welcomed a 10-year-old patient to its Blood Sciences laboratory last week for an exclusive tour.

Archie Branyik, who is receiving chemotherapy at the hospital for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, visited the laboratory with his parents for an interactive experience designed to help him better understand his treatment.

This was the first ‘Harvey’s Lab Tour’ at the hospital, an initiative named after Harvey Baldwin, a 7-year-old who was keen to know what happened to his blood samples during his treatment for leukaemia. Led by the Institute of Biomedical Scientists, Tours now take place for children in hospitals at over 140 laboratories across the UK in Harvey’s memory.

Wearing his very own lab coat and NHS ID badge, Archie started his tour in the pre-analytics laboratory, where he learnt how samples are prepared for testing. Stepping into the shoes of a medical laboratory assistant (MLA), Archie helped to process samples that arrived from other wards across the hospital through the pneumatic tube system. The Pathology team gave him a small penguin toy which he enjoyed sending back to Woodlands children’s ward via the tube system.

Archie’s day was packed with activities, including loading and running his own blood sample on the analysers, which was taken during his treatment earlier in the day. Laboratory staff who work in Haematology, Biochemistry and Transfusion also spent time with Archie, telling him about their jobs and demonstrating the equipment in the lab, including microscopes which Archie used to look at different cells in the blood.

The visit finished at the Blood Bank, where Archie helped Senior Biomedical Scientist, Jessica Jardim, prepare and issue a unit of blood for transfusion.

Jessica, who organised the tour, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome lovely Archie and his parents for an interactive look at what goes on behind the doors of our lab.

“We hope Archie and his family enjoyed the day – seeing the smiles on their faces was wonderful. Congratulations to Archie on becoming an Honorary Biomedical Scientist, and the Trust’s first member of Harvey’s Lab Tours. We look forward to showing more children around our labs in the future, and helping them understand the work we do.”