Member Article

Building funds for Julia's House

A hospice that provides free respite care to children across Dorset and Wiltshire has been gifted a cash boost by a leading developer.

Julia’s House received the donation from Persimmon Homes Wessex; as part of the builder’s Community Champions initiative.

Julia’s House provides regular respite and palliative care for around 100 children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses, the majority of whom are unlikely to live into adulthood. Care is provided not just at their hospice building but also in children’s homes across Dorset and south Wiltshire.

Jane Matthews, fundraiser at Julia’s House said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have support from Persimmon Homes. This Community Champions £1,000 donation will help refurbish our children’s hospice in Corfe Mullen, Dorset. The building, which is a lovely family home, was converted 9 years ago and is now somewhat worn. This donation will greatly help make the hospice a more comfortable place for Dorset’s seriously ill children.”

In the next two to three years, Julia’s House plans to build a second hospice in the heart of Wiltshire and to expand its community care team across Wiltshire to cope with increasing demand from families and professionals for its home-care service.

Pauline Fletcher, sales and marketing director for Persimmon Homes Wessex said the Community Champions initiative was a way of supporting people across every city, town and village where the company works.

She said: “We are so pleased to hand over this donation to Julia’s House. It was clear just how important this group is to children across Dorset and Wiltshire and it seemed fitting we did what we could to support them.”

The Persimmon Community Champions initiative is a national programme where charities and groups can apply for funding up to the value of £1,000 to match money they have already raised themselves.

Nationwide the company will donate a total of £750,000.

Pauline added: “We’ve made it really simple to apply for funding, and we’re urging groups and charities to apply for next month’s donation by completing an online form at www.persimmonhomes.com/charity.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lee Southen .