£100,000 for hospice thanks to late doctor
IN life he was devoted to caring for sick children and newborn babies.
Now, even after his death, Dr Syed Ahsanuddin Haider’s dedication to his work will carry on.
The sum of £100,000 from the Bury medic’s estate will go to a children’s hospice. He retired in 1997 after a brilliant career during which he opened the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Fairfield General Hospital, Bury, in the 1970s.
Dr Haider raised £1m for the unit, as well as campaigning to retain neonatal and maternity services.
He died in 2011 after suffering a stroke, but his wife, Dr Bratati BoseHaider, has donated £100,000 from his estate to Forget Me Not, the charity which runs Grace’s Place, a children’s hospice in Radcliffe.
Some of the money will go towards planting a sensory garden. The rest of the money will go towards opening the children’s hospice on Dumers Lane for in-house and overnight care, in October this year.
Dr Bose-Haider said: “My husband was so passionate about helping children and families and he spent his career working so hard in the local community. When I heard about the children’s hospice opening in Bury, I knew my husband would have wanted to support this cause. It’s been wonderful to look around Grace’s Place, meet the team and hear about their plans. They are a very innovative children’s hospice charity and my husband would have been a proud supporter of the work they are doing. As a family we were keen that it would be spent on a service that would benefit children locally.”
Kirsty Franks, general manager at Grace’s Place, said: “We’re extremely grateful to Dr Bose-Haider for the very generous donation. We need to secure £500,000 to cover the running costs of the hospice for the first six months.
“This donation takes us a huge step closer to achieving our target, so we can offer both Hospice at Home and in-house care for the 650 children with life-shortening conditions and their families in Bury, Rochdale and Oldham who may need our support.”
Grace’s Place is finally set to open after being taken over by Forget Me Not when its future looked uncertain. The desperately-needed children’s hospice was due to open four years ago.