FOR a decade these clowns have been doing something doctors have no medicine for: putting smiles on the faces of unwell people.

Coastal Caring Clowns celebrated 10 years of turning frowns upside down yesterday.

Troupe president Christine Rule, who joined almost four years ago, said the clowns visited nursing homes, respite centres and hospital wards every week.

Ms Rule still remembers forgetting her red clown's nose at her first gig at Nambour General Hospital in 2008.

A fellow jester ruffled through her purse for a stick of bright red lipstick.

Christine hastily painted her nose and off she went.

Founding member Barbara Brewster started the group after attending a Patch Adams seminar.

She held her own workshop and enlisted several more clowns.

The group started with four or five clowns and for almost seven years there were never more than a dozen. But the last two years have been a bonanza.

A new member looks like signing up next month, joining the 25 clowns who visit venues up and down the Sunshine Coast.

"It is wonderful,'' Ms Rule said.

"We're very proud to have got this far and continued to grow."

The therapeutic clowns are all volunteers.

They entertain dozens of people weekly, with a main approach to putting a smile on the faces of the elderly.

"It is rewarding," Christine said.

"One thing we find is if we are feeling low or stressed in our own lives, the minute we become a clown and make someone else happy we make ourselves happy."

Ms Rule said they had visited some nursing homes where some residents had not spoken since moving in.

A visit from the caring clowns changes their lives.