FORTY years ago this month, a charming new organisation was established in Poland: the Chapter of the Order of the Smile, writes Robert O'Byrne.
Uniquely, from the very start the body's adult members - otherwise known as Knights and Dames - have been chosen by children. All of which sounds rather sweet but, as anyone selected for membership soon discovers, becoming initiated into this elite group is enough to set your teeth on edge.
The Order of the Smile came into being following an interview in the magazine Kurier Polskiwith a well-known Polish poet, Wanda Chotomska, in which she spoke of a young boy she had met who was undergoing treatment in a rehabilitation hospital near Warsaw. He had suggested that a puppet in a popular children's television programme of the time be given an "Order of the Smile". Such was the response to this proposal that 44,000 children sent designs to Kurier Polskifor the projected organisation's insignia; nine-year old Ewa Chrobak was the eventual winner with her image of a smiling sun surrounded by uneven rays of light.
From the start, the intention was always that the order's Knights and Dames be nominated by children; the very first member was an orthopaedic surgeon, Prof Wiktor Dega from Pozna. Recipients of the honour are selected on the basis of a proven track record of love, care and aid for children.
Initially only Poles were nominated but within a few years adults from other countries had also been permitted to join the order. In 1979, which was International Year of the Child, the United Nations and its then secretary general, Kurt Waldheim, officially recognised the Order of the Smile, which has had an international Chapter ever since.
Among those invited to join over the past four decades are Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, JK Rowling, Steven Spielberg and Nelson Mandela. At three o'clock this afternoon, Sophie Lillingston will become the first Irishwoman to be added to their ranks.
From Kilmallock, Co Limerick, Sophie runs an events management company out of offices in London but has maintained links with Poland ever since going there in 1992 to help in a paediatric hospital at Zabrze, Upper Silesia.
Intense industrialisation meant almost 50 per cent of the child population in that part of the country was already suffering from various chronic illnesses by the age of four. One of the more rampant conditions was leukaemia and Sophie, whose maternal uncle had died from the disease, resolved to see what she could do for the people of Poland, especially after she saw how much better sick children became following even relatively short visits to a mountain resort where the air was so much less polluted.
Returning back to this part of the world, she began looking for funds to pay for a permanent centre for sick children by pestering everyone she knew, from Kilmallock's National School to well-connected friends.
The late Tony Ryan flummoxed her by providing not cash but a pedigree cow; Sophie managed to turn this into £12,000 after organising a raffle for the animal. Her ambition was to raise £50,000 - at a time when the average monthly wage for a doctor in Poland was £60 - but she also needed to find suitable premises in the mountain region.
Conveniently, around this time Sarah Duchess of York visited children in the Silesia region and then helped to found Children in Crisis, choosing Sophie's project as one of the first to be given assistance. Then the ideal spot for the mountain retreat was found, at the end of Lipnica Wielka, Poland's longest village (it stretches to eight kilometres).
The Mountain Haven opened its doors in 1994 and continues to offer sick children the chance to build up their physical and mental strength while receiving medical care.
Since its establishment, some 5,500 children aged between two and 19 have each spent several weeks in the home which is now under the authority of the Polish Board of Children in Crisis.
Sophie still keeps a close eye on the scheme she founded and visits it several times annually. In fact, immediately after becoming initiated into the Order of the Smile, and only a few weeks before her wedding back in Kilmallock, she and two of her siblings will be raising money for the Mountain Haven by climbing Poland's seven highest peaks in just eight days.
As for next Saturday's ceremony, which at Sophie's request will take place inside the Mountain Haven, this follows a very specific format as devised by the order's youthful founders. On arrival she will be greeted by an already decorated Knight accompanied by a herald carrying a spear topped by a smiling sun and a child bearing a tray on which lie the order, a certificate and a rose.
Led up to this trio by a troupe of other children, Sophie will have the order pinned on to her before being struck on the left arm with the rose.
Next comes the request that she promise "in spite of all the winds and tempests, to be always cheerful and to bring children joy".
At which point another tray will appear and Sophie will be presented with a cup filled with unsweetened lemon juice. Before officially becoming a Dame, she has to accomplish one more task: swallow the cup's contents while trying to maintain a smile.
Which, I suppose, explains why this seemingly sweet organisation is called an Order and not a Request.