Dear supporters,
Thank you for your support. The first thing I would like to say is to thank you for your support in the past and I hope you will continue to support us in the future.
Helen & Douglas House has had some challenges in recent years, as have other charities, including the sad closure of Douglas House where we cared for young adults. However, we have come through these and are moving forward. I believe that we have the right people, the right strategy, the right partnerships and vision, and that the charity will continue to evolve and thrive.
Helen House Children’s hospice and specialist palliative care for babies’, children and teenagers are now our focus, with the families and children we care for at the heart of everything we do. We have had to make some very difficult decisions in recent years to ensure we remain here to support them at the most challenging time that anyone can imagine.
We are also committed to ensuring that the money our supporters give us is used as far as possible to provide care and that the costs of running the organisation and generating further funds is carefully controlled.
Since I joined the charity seven months ago I have been impressed by the commitment of the team at Helen & Douglas House who work extremely hard to ensure the charity becomes a modern one, fit for purpose in the environment we find ourselves, with all the associated regulation and compliance requirements and that the service we provide is the very best. In short, we are moving forward in this new era with much to be proud of, much to be thankful for and with renewed optimism for our long-term future.
The vision of the Trustees for the future is for Helen House to lead the way in palliative care for babies, children and teenagers and to be a centre of care excellence, in line with our organisational strategy. This is why the organisation was created, this is where the biggest need lies and where we can make an impact as technology and medical expertise progress. We want to provide the highest quality care and facilities to ensure we deliver the very best experience for the families we care for.
We want Helen & Douglas House to keep in the forefront of developments in the hospice sector and to shape the future of children’s hospice care across the country. We want to lead the debate regarding the funding of children’s hospice care to ensure that we are recognised for our contribution and that there is adequate funding available.
This service is too important to those that need it for so little of its funding to come from statutory sources and so much of its funding to be dependent on the wonderful generosity of the public. We have already begun the debate here with discussions in both House of Parliament and with the support of our local MP’s, I intend to keep the debate moving forward and keep it on the government’s agenda.
We have a lot of work to do here and I am confident in our team and look forward to growing the service we can provide in Helen House and through our community outreach, while ensuring the financial stability of the charity.
Thank you to all who support us.
– Ian Blair
Your support means the world to the children and families we care for
Help us raise £3.6m this year to care for terminally ill patients. The families who come to us at Helen & Douglas House depend on us to help them – either – face challenges every day during their children’s short lives or deal with living with a child with a terminal illness. But without your help, we can’t give them the expert care and support they need.