Acorns opens hospice doors (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Acorns opens hospice doors

A LONG-awaited hospice offering care and support for life-limited children across three counties, including the Vale of Evesham, is getting ready to open its doors.

The culmination of six years of planning and building will come when Acorns Children's Hospice Trust welcomes the first children and families to the purpose-built unit in Worcester on Monday.

Some 250 children and their families in the three counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire will benefit from the specialist palliative care and state-of-the-art facilities that the hospice will provide.

Over the last 18 months the project has transformed an empty field into a light, bright and peaceful building offering a welcoming, homely space tailored to the children's and families every need.

The hospice will offer much-needed respite, emergency and terminal care and a community team based at the hospice will provide 24-hour support for families at home. Acorns also offers special support for siblings, parents and the extended family as well as bereavement counselling.

Each of the ten bedrooms is specially equipped and has a glass door leading to landscaped gardens, big enough to push the hi-tech electric beds outside on a summer's day.

More than 40 highly-experienced nursing and care staff will work at the hospice alongside a team of 100 volunteers who will help out with everything from ironing, vacuuming and gardening to befriending the children.

"Just three years after launching the new hospice fundraising appeal, here we are getting ready to welcome the first children and families," said Acorns chief executive John Overton.

"The hospice is something the whole community should be really proud of. It means so much to the many local families who, up to now, have been struggling to cope with a life-limited child without the special care that the hospice can provide," he said.