Counting on Fundraisers During Hospice Week

Naomi House Children’s Hospice is calling upon its supporters to continue their fantastic fundraising following the Government’s recent decision to inject £27m into the children’s hospice movement across England over the next three years. The public funding was originally secured following lobbying of the government by ACH and its supporters, including the Sun Online and Somerfield.

As a member of the Association of Children’s Hospices (ACH) – the national voice for all 39 children’s hospices across the UK – Naomi House welcomes this landmark funding but is stressing the crucial role local people play in enabling it to provide its services free of charge to life limited youngsters and their families from Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and Wiltshire.

It costs around £2.5 million every year to keep Naomi House’s service running and with less than 1% of its income currently coming from government, the hospice relies almost entirely on the generosity of people in the community.

Naomi House’s Head of Fundraising, Jane Tabor explains: “While the government money – to be spread evenly over the next three years – is fundamental to the operation of the UK’s children’s hospices in the short term, fundraising and donations are still essential to their ongoing survival.

“At Naomi House we are incredibly grateful to people locally for their fundraising efforts and donations to date and to national supporters like Somerfield, without which this children’s hospice wouldn’t exist.  It costs millions of pounds a year to run a children’s hospice and there are many more families in the area and beyond that may require the services we provide, so please continue to support us and help keep our services running.

“Children’s Hospice Week, which runs from 16 to 23 September is a great time to find out more and get involved in our work.”

Pete Williams from Somerfield added: “Our staff chose to support ACH as our charity of the year because of the vital support the hospices provide to hundreds of children and their families every year. To date Somerfield has raised £2.3 million for ACH, surpassing our original expectations. The new government funding is fantastic, but with 39 children’s hospices across the UK we appreciate how important the continued input of all hospice supporters is. We are delighted to be able to help this very deserving charity through our Butterfly Campaign and all of us at Somerfield look forward to raising even more money for children’s hospices throughout the remainder of 2006.”

Barbara Gelb, chief executive of the Association of Children’s Hospices, said: “We are delighted that the government has recognised the services of children’s hospices and this three-year boost has saved them from having to cut services. While this will help immensely in the short term, all children’s hospices are still very much reliant on donations from the public to keep going and we urge our supporters to keep giving generously.”

This September a number of events are planned to help raise money for ACH and its members, including Naomi House. Children’s Hospice Week is the flagship awareness-raising event in the charity’s calendar and aims to highlight the care available from hospices to parents of life-limited children. Events during the week, including a variety of open days and butterfly-themed events at many children's hospices, also serve to raise much-needed funds.  There will also be a Butterfly Swimathon where the public can dive into their favourite pools to raise money for their local children’s hospice. For more information on Children’s Hospice Week, the Butterfly Swimathon and ACH, visit http://www.childhospice.org.uk/