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Glowing Stars and Giant MRI Machines: How Professor Persephone Sextou and CAHREL Are Transforming Paediatric Healthcare Through Creative Innovation
What happens when you combine cutting-edge digital health tools, a child-centred creative approach, and a world-class academic partnership with the NHS?
You get CAHREL—the Creative Arts and Health Research Lab at Leeds Beckett University, led by Professor Persephone Sextou. CAHREL is reimagining how we support children in medical settings, not with cartoons or colouring books, but with evidence-based digital innovation that offers real emotional security and deeper understanding of healthcare experiences.
Creative Innovation at the Heart of Healthcare
Based in the Leeds School of Arts, CAHREL is more than a research unit—it’s a creative powerhouse developing interdisciplinary methodologies that bridge the gap between the arts and the NHS. Under Professor Sextou’s leadership, the lab brings together expertise in performance, health communication, and digital design to create tools that speak the language of children: interactive, intuitive, and deeply empathetic.
CAHREL’s work is creatively informed, rigorously evaluated, and designed in close partnership with NHS professionals. The aim is simple but powerful: improve children’s experience in hospitals, reduce anxiety in children and give them agency and especially during high-stress procedures like MRI scans, by improving their emotional preparedness and understanding of what’s to come.
Glowing Stars: When Apps Light the Way
One of CAHREL’s flagship projects is the Glowing Stars study, developed in collaboration with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Plymouth, Edge Hill University, and digital health innovator Xploro.
The study targets children aged 4–10 who are preparing for MRI scans—an experience often fraught with fear, confusion, and distress. Using the Xploro app, children can explore a virtual hospital environment, interact with customisable avatars, and even “take apart” an MRI scanner in augmented reality.
The result? Not just distraction, but cognitive understanding and emotional reassurance. Children become informed, confident participants in their care, while parents and NHS staff benefit from smoother procedures and improved communication.
As Professor Sextou explains:
“This is about offering children not only knowledge but emotional security—the chance to feel in control, to ask questions, and to understand their treatment in ways that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful.”
Global Perspectives, Local Impact
CAHREL’s influence extends well beyond Yorkshire. The lab is supported by a prestigious international advisory panel of experts in mental health, health humanities, paediatric care, and digital education from across the UK, Europe, and Australia. This global network brings fresh perspectives and ensures the lab’s work is always at the leading edge of interdisciplinary health research.
Professor Sextou, who also holds an honorary position at UNSW Sydney, is co-investigator on “Future Stories”—a VR-based storytelling project supporting children in palliative care in Australian hospitals. Whether through immersive tech or strategic partnerships, her work is consistently redefining how children are treated—not just medically, but humanely.
CAHREL Talks: Building Bridges
This year, CAHREL hosted two widely attended Eventbrite webinars on mixed arts-based methodologies in paediatrics. These talks explored how creative approaches can enhance clinical care. Delivered with rigour and just enough humour to keep the MSTeams fatigue at bay, the sessions attracted creatives, healthcare professionals, academics, industry practitioners and policy-makers alike.
One attendee summed it up perfectly: “This is the kind of work that makes me hopeful for the future of the NHS.”
To students: if you’re passionate about creativity with purpose, CAHREL is a rare and brilliant place to start.
To staff: collaboration is always welcome—no theatre training required.
And to all: remember that even the most high-tech hospital experience can be transformed by empathy, storytelling, and the right digital app.
Because when children understand what’s happening, they feel safer. And when they feel safer, they shine—just like glowing stars.
Learn more at Leeds Beckett University or reach out to explore partnerships.
Because when children understand care, they don’t just cope—they shine.
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Professor Persephone (Persefoni) Sextou
Professor Persephone Sextou is a leading expert in Applied Theatre for Health and Wellbeing. Her co-design, arts-based and cross-disciplinary research model in paediatrics and palliative care informs policy and practice of health and education services in the UK and Australia.
