Hospice’s 24/7 care bid backed by civic appeal
NUNEATON and Bedworth’s new Mayor has thrown his civic weight behind Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice’s bid to go back to 24/7 care.
Following the pandemic, and due to a lack of funds, the Ash Greenbased specialist baby hospice simply cannot offer round the clock respite and care it did before.
It costs £3,000 a day to run the haven for little ones and their families and the borough’s new first citizen, Councillor Martin Walsh is desperate to help it get back to offering this help, support, care and respite back up to seven days a week.
At the launch of his civic appeal, he explained: “We have had the opportunity to visit Zoe’s Place on a number of occasions and it has opened our eyes with what they are offering the children with life-threatening illnesses but also what they can offer the parents - the assistance, help, support and relief at times.
“Because caring for anyone is quite demanding but obviously when we are talking about children, very young children and babies, the stress factor must be immense.
“They offer support, help and respite for those par- ents so they can have a little bit of their own time, and they can offer siblings support.
“From that respect, it is a phenomenal place.
“They need funds, they desperately need funds to bring them back to pre-covid situation when they were offering 24/7 care.
“They are not in that position at the moment and that is our goal.
“We may not achieve it for them but the more money we can raise for them, the nearer they will get.
“It costs £3,000 a day to run, that’s a large amount of money, whatever we can do with the Mayor’s charity will help them assist that goal of 24/7 care.” Explaining why it struck so much of a chord with him and his wife Sandra, he said: “We were fortunate, we have three lovely sons who brought us five lovely grandchildren and they are, by the grace of God, are all good.
“But not every parent can say that. “Without somewhere like Zoe’s Place, they would have nowhere.” The appeal was given early backing by Om Gurung, MBE, who is a freeman of the borough. He pledged to continue his tradition of supporting civic appeals by hosting a fundraising event in August, Merv Lawrence also offered to host a launch and fund-raising night.
Cllr Lee Downes even suggested he would do a wing walk to raise funds for the appeal, egging the new Mayor on to take part in a challenge himself – an inflatable obstacle course - saying: “I will sponsor you.”
Zoe’s Place opened in 2011 and is one of just three dedicated baby hospice’s in the country.
It offers care and respite to youngsters aged 0 to five years-old with lifelimiting conditions. It offers day as well as overnight care.
It has a specialist sensory room as well as art, music and animal therapy. It also has a garden and soft play as well as a specialist ‘starlight suite,’ for families to spend precious time with their little ones.
It’s a phenomenal place. They desperately need funds to bring them back to pre-covid situation.
Cllr Walsh