Rebecca House is marking 10 years of care at its purpose-built wing of Hospice Isle of Man at Strang and we are encouraging the Manx community to get involved.

There will be 10 different events happening during the 10 months to November 12, culminating in a Rainbow Ball on November 11 - the anniversary of the actual date that the team moved into Rebecca House.

The new chief executive for Hospice and Rebecca House, Anne Mills, said: ’Rebecca House provides a home from home environment for all our children and their families.

’In the short time I have been here I have seen first-hand how important this care and support is to all of them.

’I would encourage the Manx public to get behind our campaign to raise £100,000 to mark 10 years of Children’s Hospice care on the Isle of Man.’

Although specialist children’s palliative care has been provided by Hospice Isle of Man for a total of 12 years, on November 12, 2007, Rebecca House opened its doors to our first in-patient.

Having a bespoke children’s hospice has enabled the team to provide a comprehensive service to many families over the last 10 years.

Hospice Isle of Man was delighted that the late Robin Gibb and his wife Dwina carried out the official opening ceremony of Rebecca House on November 14, 2008.

The Rebecca House team say they remember Robin and Dwina with great fondness as both of them spent a lot of time with the children during that day.

The need for a children’s hospice service based on the Isle of Man became evident towards the end of 2002, when our Hospice was approached to see whether respite care could be provided for Ben Cowell, a terminally-ill two-year-old boy.

Unfortunately, at that time we did not have resources to help this little boy. However, a seed was planted to develop children’s hospice services on the Isle of Man, which five years later led to the opening of Rebecca House.

A generous donation towards this new service was provided by the Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust. Henry Bloom Noble’s wife was named Rebecca and so our children’s hospice was named in her honour.

Now, 10 years on we can look back and see the impact Rebecca House has made on the lives of our patients and their families. The letters and comments reinforce that the team’s support and care, whether in end of life care or providing respite, has been invaluable.

The Rebecca House team have sibling, parent and grandparent groups, acknowledging how important it is that all of the family are cared for and supported. Access is also available to the wider Hospice services, including complementary therapies, psychological support, and social care advice.

The specially trained nurses, nursery nurses and experienced health care assistants provide care for any child from birth until the end of their 18th year of age.

Our criteria are that our children are facing a life-limiting or life-threatening illness, and have complex healthcare needs.

Currently our team look after 32 children and their families.

We now extend our services to the antenatal period for any parents who need support in their pregnancy where there may be healthcare problems once their child is born. Equally, we are addressing the transitional needs of our children who are becoming young adults and who are moving into adult services.

Our Rainbow Room and bereavement service are used each year to support parents whose children sadly have died, even if they were not one of our patients beforehand. This allows parents to spend valuable time with their child before the funeral, make memories to cherish, and to be supported for as long as they and their family need in the future.

We would encourage the public to walk, run or swim 10 miles for Rebecca House, get involved in challenge events such as the Manx Telecom Parish Walk, Tough Man or perhaps a couch to 10km walk or run. There are endless ways of supporting your local children’s hospice during this 10-month period.

To provide Rebecca House services to the families costs just over half a million pounds each year equating to around £20,000 per child per year depending on the complex needs of the child.

Donors often want to purchase a specific piece of equipment but the majority of the costs are in providing the much needed care. We do use donations to purchase specific equipment but without the specifically trained children’s nurses we could not look after the children.

There will be special 10th birthday merchandise, plus lots of rainbow items during this 10 month period, available particularly during national UK Children’s Hospice week that runs from May 22 to 28.

Available now are special 10th birthday collecting boxes for all those spare 10p pieces to be put into, please ring fundraising on 647434 to get yours.

There will be lots of special birthday events held this year with a very unusual one coming to the island. Keep checking Rebecca House’s Facebook or on Twitter.

Do you fancy getting involved? - contact the Rebecca House community fundraiser, Steven Downward at [email protected] , or ring 647434.

Perhaps your school or club would like to visit Rebecca House or Steven could visit your organisation to explain about our Rebecca House service, and how you can get involved.

Pictured is Caitlin, who was the first child to be referred to the Children’s Hospice at Home service (the service that was the precursor to Rebecca House). She was referred in 2003 and is 16.

She has been asked to be the ’poster girl’ for the campaign and we are delighted she has agreed.