Send In The Clowns

You've no doubt heard the phrase, laughter is the best medicine. Together a married couple known as Linny and Mo dispense that medicine every week. They spread cheer throughout Rex Hospital in Raleigh as volunteer clowns. "We do it because of the feedback we get from people about how much it helps and the requests for repeat visits and all the research done in the last 30 years on humor and laughter and the positive effect on health and healing and that motivates us to keep coming" said Mona Webb. Mona says a nurse once told her Linny was able to do something for a patient that drugs couldn't. "She said I want you to know I just went in there and that patient's blood pressure had stabilized for the first time since she's been in the hospital and she said I asked her what happened and she said the clown came in" said Webb. The couple has won over many patients. "Makes you feel a whole lot better knowing that somebody is trying to make everybody happy" said patient Mayhue West. Mo was a medical radiographer at Rex for nine years. Linny was a cancer patient at the hospital just two years ago. The two also perform at many other places including nursing homes and The Salvation Army.