A hospice charity has launched a £5 million fundraising campaign to help transform care for seriously ill children.
Acorns Children’s Hospice, which supports families across the West Midlands, announced the campaign as demand for its services reaches record levels.
The campaign aims to bring care closer to home and help give children more time to simply be kids.
Trevor Johnson, chief executive of Acorns Children’s Hospice, said: “Across the West Midlands, families caring for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions are under extraordinary pressure.
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“Too many are spending precious time as carers rather than parents, and as patients rather than children.
“We want to change that.”
He said the campaign, named Acorns Time Machine, represents a ‘bold vision for a new kind of care’ that delivers support wherever and whenever families need it.
The charity’s largest ever fundraising appeal, Acorns Time Machine aims to reach more families and reduce the need for long, emotionally and financially draining journeys to access care.
More than 11,000 children with complex medical needs are currently living across the West Midlands, according to a University of York study led by Professor Lorna Fraser.
Mr Johnson said: “At Acorns, we’re proud to care for more than 1,000 families every year.
“But so many more need us. Acorns Time Machine is about making that possible.”
He said the campaign will help provide ‘reassurance when things feel uncertain, guidance when symptoms change, and joined-up support that helps prevent crisis and exhaustion’.
Acorns provides specialist palliative care for babies, children, and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions from its three hospices in Birmingham, Walsall, and Worcester.
Support is also delivered at home and in communities.
The charity must raise around £40,000 every day to run its services, with more than 75 per cent of that amount coming from generous donations, fundraising by businesses and the local community, and income from the charity’s retail shops.
Mr Johnson said Acorns Time Machine is about helping families spend ‘less time worrying about care and more time together’.
More information and ways to donate can be found at acorns.org.uk/timemachine.
