DERIAN House Children’s Hospice is joining national charity Together for Short Lives to combat a lack of awareness revealed by a YouGov survey.
The survey, conducted on behalf of Together for Short Lives for its Children’s Hospice Week (17-23 June) campaign, found that 20 per cent of the Great British public do not know what children’s hospices are.
Children’s Hospice Week’s ambition is to raise awareness of what children’s hospices mean to seriously ill children and families, to celebrate the lifeline care they provide and show how they support families to make precious memories. It is hoped that by changing perceptions around children’s hospices more families caring for seriously ill children seek help from their local hospice.
Based in Chorley, Lancashire, Derian House Children’s Hospice, is a charity offering a range of support for families looking after a child or young person with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. The support provided includes specialist playgroups, art and music therapy, community and respite care, end of life care and support through bereavement. Importantly, the care involves the child or young person’s whole family, lasting as long as they need.
The charity helps more than 400 families from across Lancashire. Families like three-year-old Bobby Baldwin’s, who recently enjoyed a free week’s break in one of the charity’s holiday lodges at Ribby Hall.
Bobby suffers from a terminal heart condition and has to spend much of the winter indoors to prevent him from coming into contact with potentially fatal viruses.
Mum Emma Doherty, from Wigan, said: “We don’t know how long we’ve got with Bobby and something like this was a massive deal for us. It was a chance to have a good time and forget about reality for a little while. Seeing him happy and doing all the things he wants to do was great. There’s no words for what making these memories meant to us.”
Children’s Hospice Week (17-23 June) is run annually by children’s charity Together for Short Lives, and is the UK's only awareness and fundraising week benefiting children’s hospices and the families they support. The aim of the week is to bring all 54 UK children’s hospices together to raise awareness of the support they provide and to dispel myths and misconceptions about children’s hospice care. This year, the campaign’s theme is Moments that matter, drawing attention to the role hospices play in helping families make special memories together.
It costs more than £4 million a year to run the services at Derian House Children’s Hospice, and yet the charity receives less than 10 per cent of this from government sources. To make a donation visit www.derianhouse.co.uk or call the fundraising team on 01257 271271. Follow the charity on Facebook @derianhouse, Twitter @derianhouse or Instagram @derianhousechildrenshospice.