Help us open the doors to Wishes House

For some grieving families, coming for counselling means returning to the same Hospice building where they said their last goodbye.

Our teams are there to listen, understand and support them. But today, that support takes place in rooms shared with other Hospice services, rather than somewhere dedicated to the people coming through our doors after loss.

With your help, we can change that

Please help us reach our £750,000 appeal target and transform 83 Broom Road, the house next door but one to Rotherham Hospice, into Wishes House.

It will become Rotherham’s first dedicated bereavement centre: a calm, welcoming home for counselling, bereavement and family support, away from the clinical Inpatient Unit.

Somewhere to talk. Somewhere to remember. Somewhere to meet people who understand. And sometimes, simply somewhere to be.

The need is here. The space must follow

In 2025/26, we recorded 354 counselling referrals and 234 bereavement referrals. Our counselling service provided 1,571 face-to-face contacts and 529 telephone contacts: 2,100 counselling contacts in just one year.

Behind each contact is someone being listened to, supported and given time when they need it.

Demand for our emotional and bereavement support has grown by more than 30%. Yet the space available limits what we can offer, from the size of our groups to the activities we can provide.

Wishes House is expected to increase our capacity to support bereaved adults, children and families by approximately 40%.

This is about building on care that people already value. In our 2025/26 feedback, 97.1% of those who rated their overall experience of Rotherham Hospice described it as Excellent or Very Good.

What your donation will help create

• A dedicated home for counselling and family support: Private, welcoming rooms for one-to-one conversations and space for whole families to receive support together. The centre will bring together our bereavement services for families whose loved ones were cared for by Rotherham Hospice.

• More room for people to come together: Space for grief groups, Good Grief Cafés, drop-ins and creative sessions. Opportunities to find connection and understanding, particularly for people who may find a group or shared activity easier than a one-to-one conversation.

• A home of its own for Sunbeams: Our children and young people’s bereavement support currently relies on garden rooms and shared spaces. Wishes House will provide a dedicated indoor home where children and teenagers can explore their feelings through conversation, creativity and play.

• A therapeutic Woodland Walk: Accessible paths and places to sit, reflect and remember. Somewhere to walk alongside a counsellor or spend a quiet moment among the trees. Nature-based activities will also give children and young people another way to explore their feelings beyond a traditional counselling room.

• Better access and more parking: Additional parking, accessible bays and improved access to Wishes House will help make arriving easier. When someone is coming to us at a difficult moment, finding a parking space and getting through the door should not be another worry.

More space for the wider Hospice to care

Moving these services into Wishes House will also release valuable rooms within the main Hospice, supporting the continued development of clinical and community services.

In 2025/26, our Hospice at Home team completed 12,320 home visits and helped avoid 1,363 hospital admissions. Creating more space supports our wider ambition to reach more people and help them receive care in the place that is right for them.

Your gift will help give bereavement support a dedicated home and the wider Hospice more room to care.

Why your support is essential

Rotherham Hospice is an independent charity. Our care is free to the people who need it, but it is not free to provide.

Less than 40% of our income comes from the government.

With total expenditure across the charity exceeding £10 million that year, donations, gifts in wills, fundraising and income from our shops and cafés remain essential to sustaining and developing our work.

The Wishes House Appeal is our invitation to help build that future. Your donation to this appeal will help create the building, therapeutic spaces and access improvements that more local families need.

Approved plans. A future we can build together

Planning permission has been granted for Wishes House, the increased parking and outdoor therapeutic space, subject to the council’s conditions.

Our appeal will help meet the costs of purchasing, renovating and equipping the property, alongside the woodland, security and access improvements that make the wider project possible.

This is how we are marking 30 years of caring for Rotherham: not simply by looking back, but by building what comes next.

Urgent update: 8 October 2026

On 7 October, two masked men pulled down security fencing and entered our grounds in broad daylight. They moved through the woodland and planned car park extension, then around staff and visitors’ parked cars, before a neighbour disturbed them and they ran away.

It was the third break-in affecting our charity in three months, following incidents at our Donation Centre and Parkgate Superstore.

We must now bring forward £15,000 of planned security work to help protect the site. The safety of the people in our care, their families, our staff and volunteers is paramount.

Security is part of delivering the wider Wishes House project. Your support will help us protect this space and create something lasting and positive for local families.

A message from Mat Cottle-Shaw, Chief Executive

“Rotherham Hospice exists because local people believed in it, supported it and helped build it.

“Our care does not end when someone dies. How we support the people left behind is part of that same promise.

“Wishes House will give more families somewhere to turn, someone to listen and space to find their way through grief. Thirty years on, we are asking our community to help us build that next chapter.”

Mat Cottle-Shaw

Chief Executive, Rotherham Hospice

Please help us open those doors

Whatever you can give, your donation will help us move closer to opening Wishes House. You can give in memory of someone you love, bring people together for a fundraiser, or share this appeal with someone who could help.

Local businesses can also support the project through donations, materials, equipment, trades and professional services.

We cannot take away the pain of losing someone. But together, we can create somewhere people do not have to face it alone.

Please donate today. Help us open the doors to Wishes House.