The Sunday Post: Hospice News

Please help us to help them

THE SUNDAY POST launched its biggest-ever appeal to readers on August 26, 2001.
indent.gif (832 bytes)

With your help, we want to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to go towards the Ł10 million needed to build Scotland’s second children’s hospice on Loch Lomond’s bonnie banks.
indent.gif (832 bytes)

For the past five years terminally ill children from all over Scotland have been cared for at Rachel House in Kinross.
indent.gif (832 bytes)

The love and attention that awaits them and their families at this heartbreaking stage in their lives has to be seen to be believed. It truly is the happiest and saddest place in the country.
indent.gif (832 bytes)

But such is the success of Rachel House that a second hospice is now desperately needed — and that’s where Sunday Post readers come in.

blakdot.jpg (1816 bytes) Sharleen Spiteri of top pop band Texas on her most recent visit to Rachel House children’s hospice. She’s helping us help them.

indent.gif (832 bytes) We have teamed up with The Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), who run Rachel House, in this ambitious venture.
First and foremost, we are asking all secondary school pupils in Scotland to raise a minimum of Ł1 to go towards the new hospice. That alone would come to Ł250,000 — but once our fund-raising appeal gets into full swing, who knows, the sky could be the limit.
indent.gif (832 bytes) Backing our plea for help is Scots pop superstar Sharleen Spiteri of the chart-topping band Texas. Later she tells why Rachel House is such a special place for her.
Over the coming weeks and months we will follow all the fund-raising events and report back to you.
indent.gif (832 bytes) With your help we can raise the much-needed money to build the new hospice and provide a second wonderful haven for those children whose lives have been cut short.

You can e-mail us at: hospice@sundaypost.com

Rachel House — the facts

The Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) was founded in 1992 by a small group of parents and professionals who understood the needs of children with life-limiting conditions and their families.

Rachel House, Scotland’s only children’s hospice, opened in 1996. It takes in boys and girls under 18, from all over Scotland, who have a life-limiting condition. This means they are not expected to survive into adulthood.

Very few have cancer. Most have progressive, terminal conditions where their health deteriorates gradually — for example muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, metabolic diseases and a host of extremely rare genetic conditions.

When first diagnosed as terminally ill, children can spend 21 days a year at Rachel House. Normally this will last from two days to two weeks at a time depending on the needs of the family.

The hospice can accommodate up to eight children and their families at any one time. Parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc, stay with them, giving the carers a much-needed break as well as the children.

In the final stages of illness, children can go into Rachel House to die. While the treatment there is unsurpassed, there are no miracle cures.

There are 40 full time staff plus more than 100 volunteers who contribute to all areas of work at Rachel House.

CHAS receives just Ł125,000 per year from central government through the Scotland Office. That’s only nine per cent of the running costs of Rachel House. The remaining money must come from their own fund-raising efforts.

Rachel House is now nearing capacity, so a second hospice is needed, to be completed in 2003. It will cost Ł10 million, and a site has been earmarked at Loch Lomond.