Uckfield man takes ice bath every day for charity after daughter hospitalised with chickenpox

Variety, the Children’s Charity announced that Josh Smith, 32, began the unique challenge to support them after his seven-year-old daughter Esmie was hospitalised with chickenpox that developed into sepsis.

Variety said Esmie ended up in King’s College Hospital in March 2023 after it was found that her left lung had fully collapsed while her right lung was half compromised. They said that not only did Esmie have chickenpox, she also had rhinovirus, Strep A and sepsis.

Josh said: “We had to sign a piece of paper that I’ll never forget, giving permission to the doctors, whom we are so very thankful for, to proceed with a life-saving operation that could go one of two ways. It’s hard to say the other option.”

Variety said Esmie was sent to the children’s intensive care unit at King’s College Hospital, accompanied by Josh and her mother Laura. Laura never left her side and remained positive throughout the ordeal and Esmie made a full recovery.

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Josh said: “I decided to do an ice bath challenge and say a positive message on the video and try to help people get themselves into a good mentality, keep a high energy, keep a high frequency, and get some good from it.”

Josh now has fewer than 100 days to go for his ice bath challenge and people can support him at www.justgiving.com/page/joshua-smith-icebathchallenge.

He chose to raise funds for Variety, the Children’s Charity when he saw their logo at the hospital while delivering Christmas gifts to staff and patients on Esmie’s ward.

During his ice bath challenge Josh has been sharing videos on social media, which are full of uplifting messages like ‘keep those big smiles on faces’ and ‘big love, you beautiful people’.

Variety provides practical support for disabled and disadvantaged children. Visit variety.org.uk. The charity said it does this through grants for wheelchairs and specialist equipment, experiences on Variety Great Days Out and fully accessible transport with its Variety Sunshine Coaches.

Josh said he is committed to spreading positive messages while supporting Variety and raising awareness about them. He is also inspired by the care and support Esmie and the family received.