This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Show A Little Love for Helen and Douglas House
05/02/2021
Hospice asks us to donate some of our Valentines spending money in lieu of meals out
We’re being asked to help spread some warmth, kindness and plenty of love for Valentine’s Day to help local terminally ill children. Helen and Douglas House’s “Show a Little Love” campaign is hoping people will donate to the children’s hospice what they would have spent on their Valentine’s celebration this year.
Alison Hooker from Helen and Douglas House said: “We’re asking people to organise a special dinner with their support bubble or organise a virtual coffee with their besties. We’ll also have a ‘Show A Little Love Wall’ where people can go and leave a message for a loved one and also make a donation.
“It costs us £3.4m every year for the care that we provide. 83% of that comes from voluntary donations”.
Throughout the pandemic the hospice, based in Oxford, has remained open for local children to visit for care and support. Many of the families supported by Helen and Douglas House have felt very isolated and exhausted as regular carers are not able to visit. A number have also chosen to shield at home, so Helen and Douglas House community nurses and doctors have been making many more visits to families’ homes and catching up with them more regularly on the phone, emails and video calls.
This year the Helen and Douglas House play team are sending out Valentine’s craft packs to local families supported by the hospice to enjoy with their children at home. They will also be running live craft workshops with the brothers and sisters of terminally ill children and Valentine’s games, to help them cope with day-to-day life or the loss of a sibling.
Helen and Douglas House supporter Manjeet Pabla Kaur said: “I will be organising a Show a Little Love virtual brew up with my girlfriends because it is so important to take out time from working and being a parent.
“I know we all have been struggling during this lockdown with finding a non-existent balance between work and home-schooling, that we have all forgotten about the most important ‘me time’. It is even better knowing that as well as connecting with my friends, I can help to support a family in need.”
Andrea Baganz-Pritchard from Helen & Douglas House said: “Our Show a Little Love campaign aims to encourage people to interact with each other during this difficult time for us all and show a little love to each other as well as helping local families with terminally ill children. Whether you dine in for Valentine’s, arrange a virtual coffee break with your bestie or leave a message for your loved one on our Show a Little Love wall, your donations will make a big difference.
“A donation of £25 could help pay for a one hour visit at home for a child in need of emergency lifeline of care from our specialist nurse. Whatever you donate, you will be helping local families through these difficult times.”
Find out more on the Helen and Douglas House Hospice website.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam