IT is not often you will hear children complain about having to eat pizza and chips every day.

But it was the desire for healthier more nutritious food which has led to a new children’s menu at the Oxford Children’s Hospital.

Before yesterday lunchtime, sick young patients were subjected to the same choices of sandwiches and fast food.

Now thanks to the Young People’s Executive – a group of former patients who between them have spent years in the hospital’s wards – a feast of appetising and balanced daily meal options are on the table.

Fifteen-year-old Sophia Steinsberg, from Radley, near Abingdon, spent nine months in the Kamran’s Ward when she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour on her right knee.

She joined the Young People’s Executive, also known as YiPpEe, to make things better for other patients.

The St Helen and St Katharine’s School pupil said: “When you have chemotherapy your taste buds completely change.

She added: “I would just pick things like pasta and chicken nuggets and chips because there wasn’t much else.”

Heather Barlow, 15, from Banbury, also spent more than a year in hospital after being diagnosed with cancer.

She said: “I didn’t normally eat the food from the ward. I’d go to the canteen to eat because I wanted healthier options.”

The pair are among those who helped design the ‘cook chill’ meal menus, with the help of private catering company Carillion and hospital dietician Anne-Marie Frohock.

Young diners can now pick 14 different menus rotated over two weeks, featuring courses such as salmon fishcakes, shepherd’s pie, vegetable lasagne, beef bolognaise with pasta, sliced turkey and gravy, braised sausages with onions, cauliflower cheese, or tuna salad.

The menus also cater for vegetarians and those following a halal diet, where options include chicken dhansak.

On the side, youngsters can pick from creamed potatoes, roast potatoes, jacket wedges and other vegetables.

Meals are washed down with fruit juices, water or hot drinks and finished with puddings including fruit, mousses, or cheese and biscuits.

Angela Houlston, matron of the Children’s Hospital, said staff had been trying for a long time to improve the menu.

She said: “People criticised the old menu because it was too much like junk food. The children were saying we’re in here every day and all we seem to have is chips. To get better children need to eat properly. The new menu offers much more choice and is full of things children like.”