Haven House Children’s Hospice transport fund

JHHHT continues its provision of transport funding to Haven House in Woodford.  It has also recently assisted with supermarket vouchers at Christmas and support for the Hospice’s emergency fund set up as a response to the Covid Pandemic.

The range of support that Haven House has been able to provide as a result of the transport fund is well described by Eileen White, their Director of Care:

By funding transport costs JHHHT has enabled a number of children to access services at Haven House Hospice. Baby L suffers from Leigh’s disease, a neuro-degenerative condition causing severe seizures which require emergency rescue medication. This is the second child born in the family with a neuro degenerative condition. The family used the hospice for end of life care when their baby girl died in 2014. The family have limited financial resources and live ten miles from the hospice with limited public transport links available. The fund enabled the family to use a taxi service for a number of events at the hospice in recent months. This included our annual memory day event, a family day over the summer where they met other families and a recent photo shoot where professional photographs were taken of parents and baby L. A is an only child with severe cerebral palsy. A’s mother is a lone parent and does not drive. JHHHT has enabled a taxi service to bring A to the hospice for weekend respite breaks. ZK and IA are two sisters with life limiting conditions who access hospice for occasional respite care. The family do not have a big enough car to transport oldest child in her wheelchair. JHHHt has enabled us to provide a taxi to drop girls to the hospice and home after respite stays. Family of Baby C would like to access music therapy at the hospice. Mum is unable to drive and Dad works full time. The transport fund has enabled this family to start accessing music therapy during the week. And K, a mother of a seriously ill child aged 1 year 8 months has been able to access music therapy  “I don’t work so wouldn’t be able to afford the cost for Logan to attend Haven House as we have to get two buses which are long journeys. It can be a stressful trip on public transport as we have to let some busses go past as there is no room for wheelchairs. I also find myself rowing with some people as we get told to fold the wheelchair as people see it as a normal pushchair. Also L doesn’t like too much noise so a busy bus can stress him and bring on fits. Having a taxi pick us up for sessions like music therapy makes things stress free for both of us and makes coming to Haven House a happy experience.”–