Koalas in trouble read by Barbara Windsor

Koalas in trouble is one of six stories created by patients, families and staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital, with the help of writer Sarah Butler. The audio version is narrated by the Dame Barbara Windsor.

The sun was starting to come up over the forest where the koalas lived. Ketchup was fast asleep, hugging his toy walrus. But his sister Katy was wide awake. She was peering down through the leaves at a group of koalas she had never seen before. Each koala held a small bag or suitcase, and they were all talking loudly:

'Huge red monsters with claws bigger than a bear.'

'The whole of the Western Quarter gone in a single day. Every tree lost.'

'Nothing can stop them, nothing.'

This had been going on for months now. It seemed that almost every day new koalas were arriving, with stories of monsters, and falling trees, and lost homes. Katy’s parents wouldn't tell her what was going on. It's nothing to worry about, they said, but she could see that they, and everyone else in the forest, were very, very worried indeed.

The next day, Katy and Ketchup went to the river to fetch water. But when they got to where the river should have been, there was only a line of dry stones.

'They must have built a dam.'

Katy looked up and saw a koala, a little older than her, standing on the other side of what used to be the river.

'Who are they?' she asked. 'And what's a dam? And who are you, anyway?'

'My name's Katoomba,' the koala said and climbed across the line of stones to offer Katy and Ketchup his paw. 'We arrived last night.'

'You saw the monsters?' Katy said.

'Monsters?' squeaked Ketchup.

Katoomba laughed and shook his head. 'To answer your first question,' he said. 'I was talking about the humans. A dam is something humans build across rivers so they can use the water for themselves.'

'And the monsters?' said Katy.

Ketchup hugged his toy walrus and turned pale.

'Aren't monsters at all,' said Katoomba.

Katy tried not to look disappointed. Ketchup sighed with relief. Katoomba told them that the monsters were machines controlled by the humans, and that the humans were cutting down the trees so they could build more places for their kind to live in.

'Do you believe me?' Katoomba asked when he had finished.

'Of course we do,' said Katy. Ketchup frowned.

'Because nobody else does,' Katoomba said. 'They think the machines are monsters. They just tell me I'm too young, that I don't know what I'm talking about, that I shouldn't worry and should leave it all to them. But they're not doing anything.'

'What’s a machine?' said Ketchup.

Katy rolled her eyes. Katoomba smiled, 'They’re just bits of metal joined together,' he said. 'Nothing to be scared of.'

'Then why don’t we unjoin them?' said Ketchup.

Katy and Katoomba looked at each other and smiled.

'Ketchup,' said Katoomba, 'You might have just saved the forest.'

Ketchup jumped up and down and waved his toy walrus in the air, and the three of them headed back home.

Early the next night, the koalas held a meeting to discuss the monsters that were destroying the forest. Children were not invited, but Katy, Katoomba and Ketchup weren’t going to let that stop them. They sneaked into the back of the crowd, waited for a pause in the conversation and then the three of them stood up. Between them, they told the koalas their plan.

Not everyone was impressed. The adult koalas started to mutter to each other.

'They’re just kids, what do they know?'

'This is too dangerous.'

'Madness. Madness.'

Katy climbed up onto a tree stump so she could see everyone. 'The forest is our home,’ she said. ‘If we all work together, we just might be able to save it; otherwise we’ll lose it forever.'

The adult koalas shuffled their paws and shrugged their shoulders.

'She has a point, I suppose.'

'If the forest goes, what will happen to us?'

It was agreed that five koalas would travel to the edge of the forest to work out if what Katy, Ketchup and Katoomba claimed was true.

Everyone waited impatiently for the group to return. After what seemed like forever, they arrived back with the news that it was true: the monsters were machines! The plan might just work! Every koala, from the very youngest to the very oldest, gathered together, and they all set off towards the edge of the forest. They arrived just as the sun was setting. The broken trees and snapped branches looked like black skeletons against the dark orange sky. And the machines - well, Katy could understand why everyone thought they were monsters.

It took all night. The koalas worked until the sweat poured down their faces, until their paws ached and their sharp claws were cracked and broken. They unscrewed screws and dismantled petrol tanks; they shredded rubber tyres and broke steering wheels; they twisted wires and pulled apart engines. They hid the pieces up trees, under boulders, and at the bottom of the forest's deepest lake. And, as the sun started to lift itself above the horizon, it lit up an extraordinary scene – the machines had completely disappeared.

The koalas climbed up into the trees and waited. They had to try hard not to laugh out loud when they saw the humans’ surprise. Once the last human had scratched their head and stamped their feet and walked away, the koalas surrounded Katy, Katoomba, and Ketchup and cheered and cheered and cheered.

But Katy had a niggling worry at the back of her mind. ‘We've won some time,’ she said. ‘And now these humans know what they're up against. But they might be back again with more machines.’

The koalas stopped cheering. Katy looked at Ketchup and Katoomba, and smiled. ‘But don't worry,’ she said. 'I have another idea...'