Amethyst Homes has helped build funds and raise awareness for a local hospice, which supports bereaved children and their families.
Willow Burn provides a wide range of professional and specialised treatments, services and care to relieve physical and emotional symptoms for those at the end of life.
Patients, their relatives and friends benefit from holistic, individualised care - ranging from day care, respite, inpatient services and bereavement counselling.
Through a series of donations and fundraising activities last year - including taking on the 180 mile coast to castle cycle ride, from Tynemouth to Edinburgh - they have raised over £4,000 for the hospice.
The money has been used to support our Children Bereavement Service for five months. This has included funding a trained counsellor who delivers one-to-one and group therapeutic counselling with children and young people within the hospice, as well as support for families, where a loved one is at end of life.
Carol Hagri, Head of Clinical Services at Willow Burn Hospice, said: “The value of this service is far reaching. With Amethyst Homes fundraising we have been able to provide free counselling to children and young people in North Durham.
“The hope is that it arms them with the tools and coping strategies to improve their resilience, cope with loss and impending loss, and to understand the part death plays in life.”
One in every 29 children in the UK under the age of 16 – that is one child in every classroom – experiences the death of a parent or sibling.*
Future plans at the hospice include bringing the counselling outdoors to the children’s playhouse and mud kitchen. Children are much more receptive when they are in a safe, relaxed and fun space in nature.
Richard Bass, Development Director at Amethyst Homes added: “As a local business, we are keen to support vital and valuable charities in our area. Willow Burn Hospice is such a central part of the local community, with its staff touching the lives of so many people who often are at their most vulnerable. We are pleased that our fundraising is being used to support children and young people navigate their way through the emotions and grief of bereavement.”
*Statistic taken from https://lnkd.in/gxNV9Bs
Picture caption one: From left to right Paula Spoor, Sales Manager with Amethyst Homes, Carol Hagri, Head of Clinical Services at Willow Burn Hospice and Richard Bass Development Director with Amethyst Homes.
