£25,000 Award Will Make A Splash For Young Hospice Users In East Anglia

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) has secured £25,000 to refurbish its hydrotherapy pool in Milton, after winning a national award.

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) has secured £25,000 to refurbish its hydrotherapy pool in Milton, after winning a national award.

The charity was awarded the funding by financial mutual, OneFamily, through its Foundation Community Awards. The annual awards provide game-changing opportunities for community organisations, groups and projects across the UK.

EACH supports families and cares for young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Its three hospices, in Milton, Quidenham and Ipswich, are not just about end of life care, but are uplifting places where young people can live life to its full potential.

Hydrotherapy is a vital service offered by the charity, bringing huge benefits to young people with life-threatening conditions, giving a freedom of movement and muscle relaxation they can’t achieve with land-based therapies.

The hydrotherapy pool has been used since 1989 when EACH’s Milton site was opened by Diana Princess of Wales.

After 28 years, the boiler now needs replacing to enable staff to regulate water temperature and ensure they don’t have to cancel important therapy sessions. The pool also needs a dehumidifier to make sessions more comfortable for people with respiratory problems.

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices was nominated for a Foundation Community Award by OneFamily customer Teresa Watkin-Child and her husband Andy.

Alex, Teresa and Andy's eldest son, lives with a disability. As a little person Alex has undergone operations, so he fully understands the benefits which hydrotherapy can bring.

Teresa said: “This project was Alex's idea. Although facing challenges of his own, Alex wanted to demonstrate that he may be a little person but he can do something really big for children and their families, who are often facing an unimaginably difficult time.

“It just shows that even when life is that bit harder for yourself, you really can make a positive change in the world.”

Sophie Baker, EACH Cambridgeshire Community Fundraiser, said: “Hydrotherapy is an excellent way of allowing children greater freedom of movement and relaxation, but many EACH families are often unable to access public pools.

“Our young people really benefit from therapeutic strengthening and stretching with physiotherapy sessions in the pool, and this award will ensure that all the young people who use our services are able to enjoy hydrotherapy and all the benefits it can bring.

“We are so grateful to everyone who voted for our cause. This award will make a huge difference to our service users.”

Karl Elliott, marketing director at OneFamily, said: “The work that EACH does to support young people and their families at the most difficult of times is nothing short of inspirational.

“Our Community Awards go right to the heart of what being part of a mutual society is all about, directly benefitting our customers and the causes closest to their hearts.

“Our next round of Community Awards is set to launch in autumn and we’d encourage our East Anglia-based customers to get involved and nominate a cause that’s important to them.”

Through its Foundation, OneFamily redistributes a proportion of its profits back to its customers, to help them to help their families, their communities and those they care about most. In 2016, 100,000 people directly benefited from Foundation Community Awards.

Over a period of five years, OneFamily aspires to make £5 million available through its Foundation, helping to improve the lives of its customers, their families and communities.

For more information please visit: https://www.onefamily.com/your-foundation/