Anna & Gary will be taking part in a tandem sky dive with the red devils on 31^st August 2010. Some people may think we are either brave or stupid, stupid we may be but brave are the families of children with terminal illnesses. We are raising money for Hope House children’s Hospice who provide support to the children and their families during the child’s life. We are paying to complete the jump ourselves so all money raised will go direct to Hope House.

Anna has worked with many children and families in Shropshire, where the child has a terminal illness and they have received fantastic support from Hope House. Hope house provide outreach support, this enables the child to remain at home and the staff will provide support at the child’s home. This support is invaluable to families as it means their child can stay at home in very difficult times. Hope House also provide the opportunity for the children and their families to have a stay at Hope House where they can spend quality time together and leave the day to day chores at home. They offer family counselling, sibling support groups and a very special snow flake room. The snow flake room enables the child to remain at Hope House after passing away until their funeral. The snow flake room enables family and friends to spend time with their child in a comfortable and non clinical setting, the child can have all there things with them and family and friends can spend as much time as needed with their child.

Hope House is a truly remarkable place where every child is given every opportunity. Hope House is run on donations and with out these valuable donations would not be able to offer a service to the children & families.

We will be completing the jump in memory of Alfie Jones. I will now tell you about Alfie in My own Words

  Anna had the privileged of working with Alfie sharing many happy times and unfortunately sad times and becoming part of his family.

Please have a look at our photo's where you will see a picture of Alfie.

Alfie was born in December 2005 and passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in January 2009. Alfie had a rare genetic condition called Schinzel-Giedion Syndrome, this was a range of complication such as epilepsy, chronic lung disease and kidney disease. Due to the condition being so rare Alfie was featured in a medical journal to assist doctors to diagnose the condition. Winter was always a worrying time as Alfie was prone to chest infections.

Alfie loved bright toys, such as bells, lights and music his favourite artist was Pink. Alfie was cared for at home by his mum Katie who gave Alfie unconditional love, it was never a surprise to visit and find Katie with bags under her eyes due to a lack of sleep. Katie often went with periods of time with out sleep if Alfie was poorly. I was accepted into the family as a friend and I still am to this day. I felt privileged to be able to support Alfie, Katie and his older brother.

Alfie loved to go into town to the park or to look at the toys in Woolworths, this could take ages to get through town as Alfie was a very popular boy and everyone wanted to stop and say hello and have a chat with him.

Alfie received support from hope house with carers visiting him in his own home, they also took him to Hope House to go swimming and to use the music and sensory room, his brother also received support with the sibling support group. After Alfie passed away he was laid to rest at Hope House in the snowflake room, this enabled his family and friends to visit him and spend time with him before the funeral.

This is just one instance where Hope House have supported a terminally ill child and their family, believe us there is unfortunately a lot more families also receiving support.

We would like to thank Katie, for allowing us to discuss Alfie on here for allowing us to jump out of a plane in Alfie’s  memory, who knows if we fly high enough Alfie may come and join us for one last time together!

PLEASE PLEASE HELP US TO RAISE MONEY FOR HOPE HOUSE AS THEY PROVIDE AN INVALUABLE SERVICE FOR TERMINALLY ILL CHILDREN AND FAMILIES.

With out donations the number of children & families they support would be a lot less than detailed below.

If you would like to read more about hope house visit www.hopehouse.org.uk