The official charity for
Alexander Devine: a charity set to make history
Later this year the Alexander Devine charity aims to break ground on a new building development in Maidenhead and make history in Berkshire. The development, when complete in 2016, will provide the first purpose- designed children’s hospice in the county, writes John Burbedge
The hospice will provide a ‘home from home’ experience with six overnight bedrooms and two parent suites offering overnight respite for both children and their families. Essential needs such as cooking, cleaning, and medical requirements will be undertaken as necessary all day every day, free of charge, allowing families to enjoy quality time together.
Other facilities will include a hydrotherapy pool, creative learning, music, arts and crafts therapy, a sensory room and assistance with emergency respite, end-of-life care and bereavement.
There are also plans for landscaped themed areas in the surrounding gardens with a pet-farm, fire-pit, picnic and playground to enable full-life experiences for the children and families.
“We have researched several different hospice designs, but there is no template. It’s very easy to get carried away about a huge building with lots of beds but then you’ve got the issue of running costs, and making sure those beds are always filled,” explained Fiona Devine, co-founder of the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.
“I think our design, combined with our community team and Alexander’s Nurses, is the best model because it provides choice for support in the home environment, in hospital and, when things become too much, a place of safety, care and respite – our hospice. Our service follows the child’s entire journey and will be used to the maximum in all three areas.”
Community fundraiser Julia Philipson (left) and Fiona Devine with the building designs for the new hospice
When their son died, aged 8, the couple devoted their efforts to creating the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service as his legacy to provide specialist palliative care for children in Berkshire.
There are more than 400 families in Berkshire with a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and the nearest children’s hospices are in other counties at Oxford or Winchester. “Frankly, some families with children with complex needs find it very difficult to travel the distances involved,” said Sally Stevens, director of fundraising and communications.
As the charity’s founder patron Sir Michael Parkinson CBE remarked in November last year when launching the campaign to raise £5 million for the building: “It is extraordinary that a children’s hospice does not already exist in Berkshire.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2014
Extensive fundraising activities are ongoing to secure the construction of the hospice. “Fresh momentum will come as Berkshire realises this project will be unique, an amazing success story for the county, but most importantly local families. We are within touching distance,” said Stevens.
But funds are also constantly required to maintain the annual cost of the charity’s operational support – its “coping mechanism for families”.
Holistic care and flexible service ‘on the doorstep’ are key in enabling relaxed reassuring homelife activities together with
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That was exactly the view of Fiona and John Devine – an ordinary family blessed with an extraordinary little boy. They lived through four years of their son Alexander enduring operations, treatments and therapy while battling against a rare brain tumour – without a central point of expertise, respite and care in the county.
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necessary medical treatment and emotional support.
Much of this support is currently provided by the specialist Alexander’s care team, which helps around 70 Berkshire families.
The team’s work ranges from paediatrically- trained Alexander’s nurses providing homecare visits and respite for parents, to attending procedures in hospital with children. Alexander’s nurses were introduced in 2010; the Alexander’s care team was established in 2013. Due to the pressing need the charity is currently recruiting.
Wanted: A charitably-minded builder
A six-acre farmland site at Woodlands Park, Maidenhead has been donated for the hospice. Planning permission has been obtained. Professional advice and services have been generously given at cost by Berkshire businesses – Wokingham-based Boyer Planning (part of the Romans Group), Windsor architects Edgington Spink & Hyne, Wokingham quantity surveyors Rider Levett Bucknall, and Ascot consulting engineers Cudd Bentley.
But, currently the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service is in need of a charitably minded builder to help them construct their history-making hospice.
Since it was formed in 2007 by Fiona and John Devine, the charity has been well supported by local businesses. For example, its Slough head office has been provided by SEGRO.
On May 8 at Ascot Racecourse the charity will be a certain winner – when it features as the official charity of the inaugural
Thames Valley Property Awards evening.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for us. Some of the Award sponsors already actively support Alexander Devine fundraising and the event will help us raise awareness among other companies about the importance of what we do for children among the communities in which they operate,” explained Stevens.
Who knows? That generous-hearted builder with an eye on making history might be attending.
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