Ad’s Place
Remembering Adam Bojelian
You’ll see us pictured on the 19th December 2014, as we held one of our favourite events of the past nine years: a Christmas party for a very special young man, who many knew as Ads the Poet.
We were first introduced to Adam Bojelian by our lovely colleagues at NHS Employers and were blown away by Adam’s talent for poetry. Born with cerebral palsy, Adam communicated solely through blinking. He was passionate about poetry and wrote so many incredible poems. One of his most famous, and our favourite, must be ‘Christmas Gibbons’ which gained him international recognition and media coverage when it was turned into a fantastic song and animation. The song reached number two in the iTunes Music for Children Chart and has had over 18k views on YouTube. You can see ‘Christmas Gibbons’ here.
Sadly, Adam passed away at the age of 15 on 24th March 2015. Since then Adam’s family have set up a foundation in his memory – The Adam Bojelian Foundation, that aims to to support health and social care staff by helping them overcome commonly held fears about law and ethics. Each March Horizon Leeds has hosted AdsTalk, a brilliant event which is inspired by Adam. Talks are given by experts in their field, they celebrate and share the values Adam advocated, promoting the best possible healthcare for patients, families, and staff.
Adam Bojelian Memorial Talk #AdsTalk23
In 20203, the Adam Bojelian Memorial Talk #AdsTalk23 took place on Friday 24th March between 12noon – 3pm at Horizon Leeds. The talk was led by Professor Ruth Northway who spoke about ‘Equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare: moving beyond the policy to embedding in practice’.
Adam was an inspiration to many and, although you may know our largest room in Horizon Leeds as Create@, for the staff at the venue, NHS Employers and NHS Confederation, it has always been remembered as Ad’s Place. So next time you’re in the venue, go and have a look at the plaque which sits just outside Ad’s Place where you will see this great photo from Ad’s Christmas party, and you may even recognize a couple of the elves!
