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A hundred years ago, 200,000 people in the British Isles were suffering from TB and 70,00 were dying each year.

It was the dreaded disease of the time, spread largely by person-to person contact, affecting both young and old, especially among the poor and malnourished, living in overcrowded, stinking parts of cities, writes Hazel Jones-Lee of Children North East.

In practical terms, one infected member of a family coughing, or spitting, close to another or, as was commonly the case, sharing the same bedsheets, infected the rest.

With no antibiotics and no effective vaccine to treat it, the best hope — for those who could pay — was the fresh air, high altitude, rest and good food found in sanatoriums in mainland Europe.

The Poor Children’s Holiday (PCHA) Association was founded in 1891 in Newcastle.

(Today the organisation is called Children North East and is celebrating its 125th birthday).

The PCHA had from the beginning understood the benefits of fresh air and good food for poor children which it offered first through its Seaside Day Trips (1891) and Country Holidays (1894) for the more sickly.

However, their honorary physician, Dr TM Allison, understood that more was needed and knew that prolonged ‘food and fresh air, shelter and sunshine’ would make a significant difference to these children. How to achieve it?

From at least 1903 he campaigned for a sanatorium for the North East, the first children’s sanatorium in the country.

Soon his committee found White House Farm at Stannington whose 173 acres could accommodate the three-part scheme for a farm on which to train rescued city boys to provide the good, fresh food needed; a children’s sanatorium; and finally a boys’ convalescent home.

During the months of planning, Dr Allison lobbied tirelessly for floor-length french windows with arched fanlights to let in as much light as possible, an essential part of the treatment.

Finally, thanks to the incredible generosity of local people and especially to Roland Philipson, who gave £5000 (equivalent to £420,000 today), the sanatorium was opened on October 5, 1907 by the Duke of Northumberland and admitted its first 50 patients on March 15, 1908.

Who were those children?

There was a girl aged six from Stanley, who shared a kitchen, parlour and two bedrooms with father, mother, six sisters and four brothers.

Another girl from Shieldfield lived in two rooms with father, mother, two sisters and four brothers.

Some of the results were remarkable.

‘‘MJS’ aged 17, from the workhouse in 1908 who arrived in the final stages of consumption [TB], put on over 6 lbs in a month.

In the following years, further fresh air and light came with the Outdoor School (1914), still in existence in 1941; the Outdoor Revolving Shelters where a further 40 patients slept (1917); and the covered verandahs for bed-patients available in the extensions of 1920.

Finally, in the late 1920s, the sanatorium built a pavilion using the new therapeutic Vita Glass, which admitted ultraviolet rays into the building.

The sanatorium was taken over by the NHS in 1948 and, as the number of TB cases declined, became a general children’s hospital in 1953.

In 1907, our founders focused on physical illness and especially TB.

During our 125th year in 2016 we are focusing now on the mental health and well-being of children and young people.

If you would like to support our Mental Health Campaign and help us to continue to provide vital services, please text CNEM16 £3 to 70070 to donate £3.

Thanks to Hazel Jones-Lee and Children North East.

Visit www.children-ne.org.uk