Thursday, December 8, 2011

Martin Clunes: Julia's House gets £5,000 in donations

Bournemouth


Kind-hearted residents have donated more than £5,000 to Julia’s House children’s hospice after learning that it has to cut its services next year.

Hit by a £250,000 shortfall in funding, the Corfe Mullen hospice will be shutting its doors on 36 Mondays through 2012 when pre-school children would normally receive extra sessions.

“We have had a really generous response over the funds,” said chief executive Martin Edwards. “Since the story broke we have had donations of nearly £5,000 in the last few days.

“Compared to a quarter of a million, it’s a start. It shows that people care tremendously about what we do.”
The Daily Echo revealed in November that the charity, which needs to raise £2.8 million to fund the hospice and its community team of 90 nurses and carers, was struggling to make ends meet in gloomy economic times as people are tightening their belts.

Mr Edwards stressed that the hospice was not intending to close and no jobs were at risk.

“Every child will still have a minimum of 200 hours of care a year. The under fives were receiving additional support and we won’t be able to afford that. They will still get their 200 hours,” he said.

And the hospice, which is a lifeline to 94 families of children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, will continue to offer crisis support.

While the number of people giving has increased, they are giving less and the charity is looking at different ways of raising funds. The eight charity shops are doing well as people buy second hand and more will be opened next year, while a lottery has also been launched.

Actor Martin Clunes, a patron of Julia’s House, has described the hospice as “the pride of Dorset” and Mr Edwards said this was borne out by the response of residents.

“I want to thank people for continuing to support us even in difficult times,” he said. “Hopefully we will be able to restore these service cuts in future.”

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