“I am honoured to have worked at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices for the last 20 years. I remain in awe of the incredible staff across the charity, together with our amazing volunteers, supporters, trustees and patrons, who continue to ensure we are here for children and families now and long into the future. We have so much to share with you in this edition of Shine. I am so proud to have been a part of something over the last 20 years that is so incredibly special and as we continue to strive to provide even more care and support for families, I want to say a heartfelt thank you for making such a significant difference to our work, helping us continue to make every precious moment count.”
Virtual Shine – Winter 2023
Our winter edition of Shine highlights our new bereavement strategy, and introduces our new virtual tour. Our welcome for this edition comes from Karen Sugarman MBE, who is our Executive Vice-President and celebrated her 20th anniversary with us this year.
Welcome from Karen
Latest news
A new way to see our hospice
Often the word ‘hospice’ carries some preconceptions; and understandably for families there may be a level of apprehension ahead of visiting us for the first time. However, thanks to our long-standing corporate supporters Fourfront Group, families can now see what to expect before even stepping inside, as they have created an amazing 3D virtual tour of our Guildford hospice, Christopher’s. Kindly offering their service for free, Fourfront Group have created an immersive, interactive experience throughout the whole hospice, allowing families, healthcare professionals and our supporters a unique chance to see exactly what the hospice looks like and all the incredible services we provide.
Expanding our bereavement care
A core part of our new strategy is expanding our specialist bereavement support. We provided bereavement care for 176 families whose child had died from a life-limiting condition in 2022/23, in Surrey, north-west London and south-west London. But for many families, specialist bereavement support is simply not available or not provided for long enough. The support we offer to bereaved families is unique in our area. We bring together expert health and social-care professionals who provide a bespoke, family centred approach that can support everyone impacted by the profound grief that the death of a child an bring. Our keyworkers, therapists, counsellors and nurses tailor the care we offer to meet each family’s individual needs. We want to ensure every family has access to this support if they need it.
Glorious gardens enjoyed by all
This summer we opened our garden at Christopher’s for the local community to enjoy as part of the National Garden Scheme. For one special day, we invited the public to explore all that our Guildford hospice garden has to offer, including its sensory walkway, memory garden and the Brewin Dolphin Garden, which was donated and repurposed in 2022 from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show silver-medal winning garden, designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes.
Super shop ‘Win’dow
A huge congratulations to our Guildford charity shop team for first place in the town’s Coronation window display competition. The team impressed Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Masuk Miah, with their creativity, dedication and attention to detail. The mayor visited the shop to present them with their royally deserved trophy, which now sits proudly in our shop window. If you’ve been looking for a way to showcase your creativity or build your retail experience, why not volunteer at one of our shops?
Features
A look inside Symptom Care
For 15 years our SPACE team has been providing symptom management and support. See what a day in the life of one of our nurses looks like, and how we help hundreds of families manage complex medical conditions.
Helping children navigate grief
When Breege’s son Ruairí died, Breege and her family spent a week of invaluable time in our bereavement suite. She said, “It gave us time to carve every part of him into our hearts and minds.” Breege turned to books to help her older son Charlie understand his feelings, which became the inspiration to write and produce her very own book, Ruairí’s Rocket to Heaven. All proceeds of the book are being donated to us.
Over to you – our fabulous fundraisers
Give a regular gift
Small gifts on a regular basis can make a huge difference to our work. For example, just £8 a month could ensure we’re able to provide 1-2-1 nursing care for as long as a child needs. By giving a regular gift you will be directly helping us provide vital care to local families.
Christmas tree collection grows
Last year we launched our first Christmas tree collection with great success and now, with only a few months (eek!) until the festive season is upon us, why not sign up for this year’s collection. In return for a small donation, our cheerful elves will collect your tree, saving you time, hassle and mess! We will be collecting trees on 11 and 12 January 2024, from postcodes TW1, TW2, TW9, TW10, TW11, TW12, TW13, TW16, TW17, GU1, GU2, GU3, GU4, GU7, GU21, GU22, GU23 and GU24.
Join #TeamShootingStar in London
Fancy taking on one of the world’s greatest marathons as part of a fantastic supportive team? Look no further than #TeamShootingStar and join us for the London Marathon 2024!
Wonderful winner
Our lottery, Tuckwell Chase Lottery, raises a phenomenal amount of money to support Shooting Star Children’s Hospices every year. While supporting the work we do, players are also in with a chance of winning their own prize every week. Jenny Betts was one such player who, after only a few weeks of playing, received a prize of £1,000. Rather than keeping the winnings for herself, she very kindly donated them back to Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. Huge thank you Jenny for your generosity! Could you be as lucky as Jenny? Learn more about our lottery.
A gift in your will can support children like Lily, now and into the future.
Leaving a gift in your will is a big decision to make, but every gift in every will, however large or small, makes a huge difference to our vital work.
Updates
We value your information
It’s important that you know what we do with your data. So, effective from 4 September, we’re making some changes to our privacy policy making it easier for you to understand the information we collect, use and share.
Print edition
If you’d like to receive the printed version of Shine magazine, which comes out twice a year, these are sent to everyone who has made a donation within the last 12 months, and opted in to receiving post.