Hope House: How Val has helped families beat despair

Val has been at the children's respite hospice for more than 12 years and seen its valuable counselling service grow and flourish. Indeed, as team leader she has played a vital part in being there for all families through the generations, from siblings to grandparents.

Val, from Selattyn near Oswestry, has headed up a team of trained counsellors and volunteers all dedicated to care and understanding and being there at the lowest times in a family's life.

The service has grown to such an extent that about four years ago the Sunstone Counselling Centre adjacent to the hospice opened its doors.

The £1.5 million centre itself stands testament to how the counselling service is valued. It was built with donations from individuals, groups of people, local companies and trusts.

Hope House Hospice is very much looking to the future as it celebrates its 21st year.

That means a new campaign, called Can you Give a Little Love, and a new fresh logo for the charity as it moves forward.

The hospice hopes that the anniversary year will help stimulate extra fundraising, especially as it highlights the many hundreds of families it has helped over the years.

And the new logo is deliberately bright, to emphasise that Hope House is a place of happiness, where life is cherished and families find the love and support they need in their hour of need.

Simi Epstein, director of fundraising and marketing at Hope House, said that the logo is an important part of letting the public know what Hope House is all about, adding: "The research has shown that we need to do more to help people understand the wide range of services we provide and who we care for.

"As part of improving that understanding, it is vital that our brand does justice to the vital and valuable work we do – to engage more supporters, enabling us to help even more children and families who need us."

To that end, what the hospice does to sustain its services, how it presents itself and how it raises the funds which are needed year by year, are absolutely vital issues.

The Give a Little Love campaign is the latest to capture the attention and hearts of supporters and hopefully, says the hospice, harness others to help with the so necessary fundraising.

• If you can help or would like to know more, call (01691) 671671 or visit hopehouse.org.uk

• Keep up with all out 'Hope House at 21' stories here

And, of course, it has been able to do exactly what the hospice hoped it would – helping the existing specialist counselling teams to provide the priceless support to more children and families.

Val says: "It has made such a difference and is so much easier for people to relax rather than having to just find a space in the hospice itself."

It has comfortable, cheerful rooms where privacy is instant, yet you can actually feel the warmth and welcome in and around the whole building. Sunstone stands in the same kind lovely garden setting which surrounds the hospice and you just know that this is a place of safety and nurture.

In the end, of course, it is about the people inside who listen and make it live and flourish.

Val says: "In many ways, I don't think people realise how other people's lives are and where we can help in any way can make the difference."

People who have followed the Hope House story over all these years have also seen in a much smaller way how worry, despair and loneliness have added to the pain of nursing a much-loved, life-limited child who needs 24-hour care.

When they first go to Hope House and its sister Ty Gobaith in Conwy, a new door opens: there is indeed, new hope. And so it has been with the Sunstone Counselling Centre at the Morda hospice where staff are able to give undivided attention to those who need them most.

But as well as hospice families – including parents,brothers and sisters, grannies and other relatives – more and more work is being done with others where counselling can help.

"That's the thing I have noticed most, how we are also supporting more families out in the community.

"As well as helping those whose children have died, we try to help where there have been sudden and traumatic deaths like accidents, murder or suicide for instance, or multiple loss where children might have to deal with the shock of losing four grandparents in a short space of time for instance," Val says.

Fellow counsellor Yvonne Stocks agrees with that and also thinks the present centre makes a real difference to the service they can give.

And Val Humphreys leaves a particular legacy to the hospice to which she has devoted so many years. She led the team to apply for service accreditation which recognises professionally high standards.

She explains: "It was quite a process, it took about 18 months but we got it. We are the first children's hospice to have this accreditation."

And so the team leader bows out and moves on but she does so on a wave of affection from her colleagues and the greatest admiration for her contribution to Hope House, to children with life-limiting conditions and their families and to the invaluable and incomparable counselling service which she has distinguished so well.

On a reflective note, Val says: "We are dealing here with people who deserve the best and they all say how peaceful it is and tranquil.

"It is a healing, lovely thing to offer those who are facing the worst. We hope we are building bridges."