Readers urged to help leading charity expand

Buy photos » Acorns nurse Vicky Smith and head chef Martyn Barber are among the dedicated team that help run the hospice. Picture by Marcus Mingins 1113002MMR. Order this picture at www.buyphotos247.com

OBSERVER readers are being urged to show their support for one of the county's leading charities after it unveiled ambitious plans to care for hundreds more children in the area over the next five years.

Acorns Children's Hospice currently supports more than 640 youngsters across its three hospices but wants to increase this to 960 by 2018.

The target forms part of its new five year plan in which it wants to ensure every child and young person in the region with life limiting or threatening conditions receives the care they need.

David Strudley, chief executive of Acorns', believes it can achieve this partly by setting up more teams of nurses and carers working in the community to provide respite care in families' homes.

Acorns will need to find an extra £4.2million of funding by 2018 to support its growth which it hopes to secure through a mixture of grants, more fund-raising and support from the public and by expanding its thriving chain of shops from 55 to 78.

The plan comes just five years after the economic downturn forced Acorns into 'survival mode' as revenue streams from many of its corporate sponsors and donors dried up.

But Mr Strudley insisted the plan was ambitious but affordable and said the charity could not ignore the growing demand for its services which has already seen it take on 40 per cent more families in the past five years.

"The economic crash really hurt us badly for a while and meant for two years we had to go into survival mode, but slowly we realised we could not just survive but we could also challenge the issues themselves," he said.

"The purpose of Acorns is to help these children and families who cannot afford to wait. Their time is now and we must do all we can to meet their needs with a degree of urgency that reflects the huge challenges they face."

The Vale's closest hospice in Worcester currently cares for about 200 children but this will increase by a further 100.

Much of this growth would be achieved through the development of its At Home service which would see more care provided in families' homes, especially for people who live a long way from the hospice.

"A lot of families say to us it is so demanding to put together a move to the hospice for four to five days of respite care - it's almost like an expedition. I think many of them would welcome the chance to have more care in the home," he said.

Mr Strudley said he was confident the community and its partners would rally behind its proposals and embrace the challenge.

"It's our 25th anniversary and the community has always looked after this charity," he added.

"I'm confident people will get behind us and make this happen."

To find out more log onto www.acorns.org.uk.

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