Hope House Children's Hospice appeals for help in doubling fundraising

The hospice says just two per cent of the population is involved in raising money to help the charity and is appealing to others in the community to do their bit.

With centres near Oswestry and in north Wales, serving people from all over the county, the hospice was founded to help children with life-limiting illness and their families.

But over the years it has started to offer a range of services to help bereaved families and even friends of children who die, whether in tragic accidents or of sudden illness.

Fundraising Director Simi Epstein: “We need to raise £17,260 a day to keep our current services funded.

“On top of that we need to double our income by 2025 so that we can help every child and family who need us in this area and achieve our ambition that no one suffers the death of a child alone.”

"The two hospices, that cover Shropshire, Cheshire, Mid and North Wales - Hope House and Ty Gobiath - need to raise £6.3 million every year to provide vital respite care to terminally ill local children and their families, and end of life care and bereavement support to families whose child dies."

Startling figures show that in the region three children every week die whether from a long term condition, a sudden illness or accident.

The charity currently supports all those with life limiting illness or condition but only one of three of the other families.

Counselling

Help ranges from making available its snowflake suites to allow families to say goodbye to their loved ones to providing bereavement counselling, whether straight after the death of a child or further down the line.

Simi said that currently two per cent of the local population helped the hospices, from making donations to playing the Lottery, and from taking part in events to signing up to regular giving.

"Only because of their help can Hope House and Ty Gobaith continue to provide vital support to hundreds of children and families.

"But the hospices need to find even more supporters among the 98 per cent of people who don’t currently support their cause, so that they can raise the additional money they need to reach every local child and family who needs help.

“We have many events coming up in the Spring such as our Valentines virtual sponsored run or walk in February, and our Llangollen Canal Walk in March. Both are free to enter and you have time to raise sponsorship money, and there are other ways to get involved such as arranging a coffee morning by registering for our Eat Cake fundraiser,” she explained.

“For people who feel able to make a small monthly gift we would love them to sign up for our Regular Giving, which starts at just £3 a month. That is an incredible thing to do because it enables us to plan for the future and ensure we have the services that children and families so desperately need in place.”

Details of event sign ups and Regular Giving can been found at hopehouse.org.uk or by calling the Fundraising Offices: Shropshire on 01691 671671; North Wales on 01492 598581; or Cheshire on 01244 340759.