A team of carers, nurses and support staff from both of our hospices have set themselves a lockdown fundraising challenge to collectively walk, run or cycle 24,000 miles - a distance equivalent to travelling around the world.
It will certainly take them more than 80 days, as each staff member uses their daily exercise time to log their miles in an effort to jointly raise £50,000 which will help Julia's House continue its vital work caring for local children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.
Gemma Linford, one of our carers is co-ordinating the challenge with the Wiltshire hospice team. Gemma says: “Staff wanted to do something to help the charity during this difficult lockdown period. COVID-19 has had a big impact on Julia’s House, not just in terms of a loss of income due to the fundraising events we have had to cancel and the shops we have had to close, but also in the ways we are able to provide care to the families we support.”
Our Julia’s House nurses and carers are continuing, under strict infection control procedures, to visit vulnerable children in their homes across Wiltshire and Dorset, responding to families’ changing needs on a daily basis. The care and support they provide at this time not only offers vital reassurance and advice to anxious parents, but crucially, is easing the burden on an overstretched NHS by enabling these children to stay at home.
