Thank you for ‘pooling’ together!

Thanks to the overwhelming generosity and support of our amazing community of supporters, we’re able to refurbish our hydrotherapy pool at Shooting Star House!

The pool, which was built 20 years ago, has long been a cornerstone of care, offering both therapeutic benefits and opportunities for families to spend precious time together. However, ongoing maintenance issues and frequent leaks forced its closure earlier this year, leaving many families without access to an important source of support. So, in June we launched a crowdfunder appeal to raise money toward the refurbishment.

Sally Wells, Director of Fundraising shared, “Bringing the appeal to life has been a true fundraising team effort, with corporate partners, trusts and grant funders, small businesses, schools, major donors and individual supporters all coming together to help make the refurbishment possible. Collectively, over £200,000 has been raised – the response has been truly inspiring, and we’d like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who has supported the appeal.”

Work on the pool refurbishment has now started. Once reopened, we plan to hold 300 hydrotherapy sessions a year including bookable family sessions, “Saturday Splash!” activities, baby swim groups and siblings’ holiday clubs.

Ginny Hancock, Physiotherapist at Shooting Star shares, “Hydrotherapy can make a huge difference to the children and young people we support. In the water, they can move more freely, stretch muscles and joints, relax and build strength. Being in the water offers a sense of independence that can be difficult to replicate elsewhere. The group sessions we run, Tadpoles and Ducklings, offer more than just swim sessions – they are a supportive community for both children and parents. Seeing the pool closed has been very hard, so we can’t wait to welcome back families soon!”

Keep up to date on our pool refurbishment and follow the journey to reopening, by following us on social media at @sshospices.