That nerve-jangling journey from the ward to the operating theatre should be a little easier for children at Mayday Hospital, because they can now drive themselves in a jeep.

The two jeeps, funded by the Whitgift Centre, have seat belts and a top speed of two and half miles per hour, for the trip from the Dolphin Unit down the corridor to theatre, accompanied by parents and a nurse.

Brenda Homden, Sister of the Dolphin Unit, said: “Previously, we have had to take children to theatre on a normal adult trolley, which many of them have found a bit frightening.

“The new jeeps are fun. Children are happy to go to theatre in a jeep so it makes an enormous difference to their experience of having surgery, and it is more pleasant for the adult who accompanies them.”