A painting of a cat in an empty room provided the inspiration for a writing project by children in hospital.

Patients at Whipps Cross Hospital's Acorn unit celebrated National Writing Day on June 26 by writing about Cat, by artist Maria Farrar.

Children wrote stories from the perspective of the cat, the cat’s owner and the artist.

Catsou Roberts is director of vital arts, the arts and wellbeing service for Barts Health NHS Trust, which includes Whipps Cross Hospital. She said: “The benefits of arts and creative writing on the wellbeing of children has been well documented, and it has been shown to improve mental health. Young patients in hospital can face many challenges. We hope that writing from different perspectives will enable the young patients to use their imagination, come up with unique pieces of writing and have fun on National Writing Day.”

The painting is on loan from the Government Art Collection.

National Writing Day is an annual celebration designed to inspire people across the UK to get writing. The message is that everyone has a story to tell and sharing it can be a source of pleasure and power.

Visit www.nationalwritingday.org.uk to find out more about National Writing Day.