Stepping Hill Hospital’s outpatient reception is giving out Gremlins greetings this Christmas thanks to an amazing sculpture made out of casting and splinting materials.
Orthopaedic technicians Liz Halliday, Sally Mooney and Shelly Lay-Flurrie, who usually apply casts and splints to injured patients from the hospital’s fracture clinic, used the materials to create a large fireside scene based around the classic Christmas comic-horror film.
Featuring main characters Gizmo the Mogwai and chief Gremlin Stripe, the whole sculpture including a fireplace, Gizmo’s box and Christmas decorations has been painstakingly constructed by using out of date materials such plaster-of-paris and synthetic casting tape, and leftover products collected over the year such as hinged knee braces and cast spreaders.
Liz, Sally and Shelly are entering it into the national annual Christmas casting competition run by the company Benecare Medical whose products they use. Sally and Shelly are new to the competition, but Liz has previously entered the competition in the past using Christmas films as inspiration and has already won the top national prize in 2015 and 2018. Previous scenes have featured The Muppet’s Christmas Carol and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.
Liz Halliday said “We all really enjoyed using our varied creative skills to create the diorama. On behalf of the whole team I’d like to thank everyone that helped with the display, and the Christmas spirit shown across the hospital was amazing. Everyone is enjoying it, and we’re really pleased it’s brightening up outpatients this Christmas and New Year”
The sculpture was installed in line with COVID-19 infection control safety precautions. It will be there for patients and staff alike to enjoy until the end of the festive period.
