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The standard NHS blankets can look as though they have been on ward beds since Queen Victoria was on the throne. Having your own clean, soft blanket is a game changer: something familiar to pull over your legs in a chair, fold onto the bed or reach for when the bay goes cold at 4am.

Hospital sockets sit behind the bed, above head height, or on the far wall. A standard 1m cable means choosing between charging your phone and being able to reach it. Three metres reaches the bed every time.

A four-hour infusion next to a beeping pump is exhausting. Noise cancelling turns a shared bay into something bearable, and doubles as a signal that someone needs a rest from conversation.

Colouring asks nothing of a foggy head and gives the hands something to do during a long afternoon. Tear-out pages mean a finished one can go up on the locker, which does more for a bed space than any card.

Visits get awkward when nobody knows what to say. A short game fills twenty minutes comfortably, and works on a bed table with limited space.

Jug water goes warm in an hour and needs both hands and a sitting position. A straw lid makes drinking possible with one arm cannulated and the bed barely tilted, which is the difference between sipping all afternoon and giving up.

A hanging wash bag keeps everything off shared surfaces and within reach. It is particularly useful when the trip to the bathroom also involves manoeuvring a drip stand, because the whole kit travels and hangs up in one go.

A wash bag gets carried to a shared bathroom and back several times a day, and the toothbrush ends up loose among everything else. A cover or a small case keeps it as yours, which matters more than it should.

Bed baths depend on staff time. Large fragrance-free wipes let someone freshen up on their own schedule, which for a lot of patients matters more than any bunch of flowers.

Washing hair is often impossible for weeks — lines, dressings, or simply not being able to stand. Dry shampoo plus a long-handled brush restores a bit of normality without help from staff.

Air conditioning, repeated hand washing and many drugs leave skin cracked. Scented lotions can trigger nausea during treatment and irritate skin around dressings, so fragrance-free is usually the best bet.

Everything lives in this bag for the duration and gets moved every time a bed does. Soft sides squash into a locker, a shoulder strap frees a hand for a drip stand, and something you actually like the look of makes the whole business feel less like an emergency.

Meals arrive early and get missed for scans, and there are days when a hot drink is about all anyone fancies. A sachet of soup in the locker needs only the water from the drinks round, and is a comfort at the point when the ward has gone quiet.

Antibiotics, treatments and hospital food can all upset your stomach, and repeated diarrhoea can leave the skin around your bottom painfully sore very quickly. A simple barrier cream protects the area and makes washing less uncomfortable. Tell the nursing team if the skin is broken, bleeding or becoming more painful.

Day units run cold, fluids going in are colder still, and a book or a phone is no fun with numb fingers. A rechargeable warmer sits in one hand or a pocket for the length of a chair session, with no faff and nothing to plug in at the bedside.

Pull-over tops are impossible with a drip line, a shoulder injury or an abdominal wound. Buttons let a patient dress themselves, which is often the first bit of independence they get back.

Chemo chairs and day units run cold, and drips make you colder still. A zip or button front can be draped over a cannulated arm rather than threaded onto it — a pullover simply can't be worn.