People power brings Hope
Published: March 21, 2005
It’s 10 years since Hope House children’s respite hospice opened in Shropshire. Here, SHIRLEY TART looks back at the story.
Not only did the dream come true, but it changed lives beyond recognition. Hundreds of families with a life-limited child who before Hope House had little support, can look back down the years and measure the difference.
Many in that time have lost their beloved children - more than 120 have died over the 10 years. But they know that even if just for a short time, Hope House gave them and theirs the best quality, the most support, the space to laugh, relax, to be themselves, to really enjoy each other.
And families find that same experience day by day, year by year.
It now costs a scary £3.5 million a year to run Hope House and its year-old sister children’s hospice, Ty Gobaith in North Wales.
What that money buys, is priceless. And most of it comes from us, from you and me, ordinary people determined that this unparalleled work continues. Government input is derisory. People power is awesome.
The hospice’s first £3 million to build and run Hope House was raised against so many odds and more than 12 years ago the Shropshire Star willingly headed up a major campaign which brought cash rolling in. The remarkable folk of Shropshire, Mid Wales and Cheshire, have never stopped money-raising since.
The children’s respite hospice at Morda is named for baby Hope Peachey, the second daughter Caroline and Roger Peachey, then of Bayston Hill, had lost within a painfully short time. It could have had no better name.
I have been privileged to be a patron since those early days. And as Hope House marks its 10th birthday this October, today they unveiled plans for the year - along with a major campaign to improve and maintain this haven which has such a special place in all our hearts and now so much part of local life.
Chairman for that 10 years, Barbara Evans recalls the miles the faithful few trekked in the early 1990s, themselves hardly daring to believe it might really happen. They talked to groups, clubs, churches - anybody who would listen, to share the vision, to build the dream.
Barbara says: “Right across Shropshire and North Wales, no matter where we were, there would always be somebody who would not say anything during the meeting.
“Then afterwards, they would come up and start to talk, often not easily, and we’d find they had a child with a severe disability who was life-limited. Or that they had already lost a child with the sort of condition where a children’s hospice could have given them such support.
“It was very special for us then. Because what they were saying was ‘You can’t deliver what we want quickly enough.’
“There was a helplessness that we couldn’t do anything then to help, and a second helplessness and fear about whether we could do it at all.”
Fired by that need and those often unspoken pleas, Barbara and the team pushed on and made sure it did happen, that the fears of those who needed this hospice most, were laid to rest.
Today Shrewsbury mum Sharon Barratt talked movingly of what Hope House has done for her family. Her daughter Stacie was five when the hospice opened and she has been a regular visitor over all these 10 years.
Now aged 15, Stacie is deeply loved but as with so many of these very special children, needs round-the-clock care. That means constant watch for Sharon, helped by partner Dave, her 17-year-old son and his boy who is 15.
Of course families cope. But years of high dependency care where a mum becomes medical expert as well as the most loving carer, takes its toll.
Hope House has meant that Sharon has felt very comfortable leaving Stacie for a week while she did things like sleeping, deciding what time to go to bed and get up. Daily routines which we take for granted but which so many never can.
She says: “We love Stacie dearly but caring for her can be exhausting which is why Hope House has been an essential part of our lives during the last 10 years.
“Stacie became poorly when she was eight-months old and was diagnosed with epilepsy but despite so many tests at different hospitals we have never been given a name for her condition. We only know it is progressive.”
Now, Stacie is blind, fed by tube, totally confined to her wheelchair and Sharon simply does not know what she would do without Hope House and its 24-hour, one-to-one care for her beloved daughter.
She says: “Leaving a child is never easy but I trust Hope House completely and know the care Stacie receives is the very best. As her condition progresses, I know I’ll need it more and can’t say how grateful we are to all those who help keep it going.”
For the next 10 years and for all the years beyond that, please don’t let them down.
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