A patient support for a patient the patient support comprising: a layer of support bladders, the bladders each having a top wall forming an upwardly facing surface for facing and supporting the patient and being arranged in an array along a lateral axis and along a longitudinal axis of said layer, each of the bladders having multiple sides, such as six sides, defining an upper outer perimeter edge at their upwardly facing surfaces, and wherein the bladders are arranged so that each of their upper outer perimeter edges are offset from the edges of each adjacent bladder so their edges do not align to form a continuous straight gap there between that spans either the width or length of the layer of bladders; a cover enclosing the support bladders without any intermediate cushioning layer there between wherein the force applied by the bladders to a patient supported thereon is separated from the patient's skin only by the cover and any optional sheet supported thereon; and the support bladders (20, 28, 32) arranged to extend across the width of the layer, characterised in that each support bladder having a height greater than its width and being in fluid communication with each of its immediately adjacent support bladders (20, 28, 32) and configured such that if one or more bladders (20, 28, 32) are collapsed by a part of the patient's body, the bladders are configured such that the bladders surrounding the patient's footprint on the support bladders (20, 28, 32) may remain partially uncompressed by that part of the patient's body and instead cradle that part of the patient's body to thereby increase the contact surface area between the patient's body and the layer of support bladders and thereby distribute the weight of that part of the patient's body over a greater contact area than the bladder or bladders directly under that part of the patient's body. a layer of support bladders, the bladders each having a top wall forming an upwardly facing surface for facing and supporting the patient and being arranged in an array along a lateral axis and along a longitudinal axis of said layer, each of the bladders having multiple sides, such as six sides, defining an upper outer perimeter edge at their upwardly facing surfaces, and wherein the bladders are arranged so that each of their upper outer perimeter edges are offset from the edges of each adjacent bladder so their edges do not align to form a continuous straight gap there between that spans either the width or length of the layer of bladders; a cover enclosing the support bladders without any intermediate cushioning layer there between wherein the force applied by the bladders to a patient supported thereon is separated from the patient's skin only by the cover and any optional sheet supported thereon; and the support bladders (20, 28, 32) arranged to extend across the width of the layer, characterised in that each support bladder having a height greater than its width and being in fluid communication with each of its immediately adjacent support bladders (20, 28, 32) and configured such that if one or more bladders (20, 28, 32) are collapsed by a part of the patient's body, the bladders are configured such that the bladders surrounding the patient's footprint on the support bladders (20, 28, 32) may remain partially uncompressed by that part of the patient's body and instead cradle that part of the patient's body to thereby increase the contact surface area between the patient's body and the layer of support bladders and thereby distribute the weight of that part of the patient's body over a greater contact area than the bladder or bladders directly under that part of the patient's body.