Bringing smiles where they are most needed. That is the daily mission of the clown team at Sonrisa Médica, an organisation with more than 30 years of history in the Balearic Islands, which has been working in Menorca since 2018. Spreading joy, offering hope and bringing out the best in a difficult situation – such as a hospital stay – has been more than enough for them to be awarded the 2025 Royal Son Bou Family Grant, endowed with €7,000. Jordi Pérez Fernández, head of the Sonrisa Médica clown team in Menorca, explains the importance of this financial support and details the artistic and healthcare work the team carries out to turn the hospital experience into a kinder, more human and more hopeful space.
What is Sonrisa Médica?
It is a non-profit association that was born from the needs of a Mallorcan girl who discovered this service in France. She was very ill and, when she returned to Mallorca, she asked for clowns during her hospital stay. When she passed away, as she had a very serious illness, her parents moved heaven and earth to create a similar service here to the one they had found in France: a group of clowns working inside hospitals. That is how Sonrisa Médica was created 31 years ago, and since then we have dedicated ourselves to bringing smiles to children – but also to adults – to help make hospital stays a little more bearable and to provide motivation and encouragement in the middle of delicate situations.
In Menorca we started in June 2018, at Mateu Orfila Hospital. And in 2025 we began visits to two nursing homes in Maó.
You don’t just work with children.
Exactly. A few years ago, the statutes were amended because we saw the need to also support older people, and the truth is that it is working very well.
What does a typical day look like for a Sonrisa Médica clown?
We always arrive an hour early to get dressed and put on our make-up. It is the time to tune instruments and also chat with our colleagues. In Menorca there are four of us: Adriana Aguilar, Marina Ibarra, Fèlix Gómez and myself. We start the route, which is always predefined, and we visit the different departments and people we have on our list.
At the end of the day we spend another hour getting changed and reviewing how the day has gone. We also write a report in which we explain the resources we have used and whether we have collaborated with the healthcare staff.
One of our main goals is to support professionals as much as possible. For example, if they have to take a blood sample or use an invasive technique, we try to distract the child so that the moment is not so emotionally shocking or painful.
Is it a tough job or a satisfying one?
It has both sides. There are days when people are incredibly grateful for what we do and you can see it really comes from the heart; but there is also the hard side of coming into contact with people who are going through very difficult processes and, as human beings, that affects us too.
Fortunately, Sonrisa Médica is a very well-structured organisation and we have the support of a specialised psychologist, with whom we hold regular meetings and group sessions to support each other. In addition, whenever we need a one-to-one session, she is available.
What does the Royal Son Bou Family Grant mean to you?
This was the fourth time we applied. It is important to remember that Sonrisa Médica is funded, among other sources, through donations from private companies. In fact, there is a person specifically dedicated to seeking this type of funding. The grant will be used to continue the service we already provide: visits two days a week to Mateu Orfila Hospital and two more days to the nursing homes in Maó.
The €7,000 amount is essential. Without this support we would not be able to do what we do. Not only those of us on the front line – the clowns – but also the board of directors, the office staff and the rest of the professionals who work alongside us.
There is a lot of work behind every smile, and what we are still missing is being able to make this service better known. Especially in Menorca, where we have been working for a shorter time and sometimes encounter certain reservations. But once people get to know us, they change their minds.
Is it difficult to keep the service going?
Yes, it is difficult because there are many expenses and a lot of work behind obtaining the resources we need to carry out this work and offer a quality service. It requires previous preparation, experience and both artistic and healthcare knowledge, for example.
That combination between art and health is quite unique.
Yes, it is the particular combination that defines our profession. Beyond the artistic and stage component that any clown may have, we need healthcare knowledge, especially regarding hygiene. For example, if we have to enter a preoperative operating theatre, we need to know exactly which hygiene measures we must follow. Or if we go into a room with a person in isolation. We also need to know the basic pathologies we usually encounter and what they involve.
One of our tasks is to ask for the “handover”, which is all the information that healthcare professionals can give us about the patient so that we can adapt our intervention. Imagine that a child has fallen off a slide and broken an arm. In that case we will avoid any reference that could remind them of that event or trigger bad memories.
Is each intervention personalised every day?
Absolutely. A stage clown usually performs the same show, but we have to change every day. That is why we rely heavily on improvisation, adapting our work to each child’s needs.
We never know what situation we will find the child in, what mood they will be in or which resources we will have at hand to improvise. For this reason, improvisation is a fundamental part of our work.
What is the greatest reward for you as professionals?
There are many. But the best of all are the looks and the smiles. When you see someone looking at you with excitement and just a minute earlier their expression showed worry. That transformation is the greatest gift they can give us, because we see that what we do is truly useful.
It is also wonderful when, sometimes, patients we treated years ago stop us and tell us that the visit from the clowns helped them a lot and that they still remember it. Those are the moments that move us and help us keep going. Bringing a little happiness is always beautiful.
