CHASE - A home from home

Above: Christopher’s is in Artington just outside Guildford

With patrons including the likes of Max Clifford, Eric Clapton and Freddie Flintoff, you know the CHASE children’s charity must be something rather special. MATTHEW WILLIAMS visited Christopher’s – the charity’s hospice in Artington, near Guildford – where their incredible work has touched the lives of thousands

If you’ve ever sat on a train from Guildford to Portsmouth, you may well have wondered what purpose the house with the assortment of colourful children’s toys and water fountains in its garden might serve.

Well, the building is called Christopher’s and is home to the CHASE children’s hospice, a charity that as their website states: ‘exists to support families with children or young people who are not expected to reach the age of 19 because of illnesses that are incurable.’

Bridget Turner has been at CHASE since February 2001 and is now the charity’s deputy CEO. She says there are many misconceptions surrounding children’s hospices, and when we meet at the charity’s base in Artington, near Guildford, is quick to set a few things straight.

“A lot of people apply what they know about adult hospices to children’s hospices, but imagine they are just a little more colourful and friendly. There’s a bit of truth in that, but there are a lot of differences too,” she says. “Incredibly, the first children’s hospice was set up only 25 years ago. That is why in many arenas, both professional and public, children’s hospices can be poorly understood. For children, not only is paediatric palliative care fairly new as a speciality, but today there are still only seven consultants in the whole of the UK who hold that speciality. Only seven.”

At CHASE, they look after children who develop life threatening illnesses either in the womb, during the birth process or even sometimes later in life. Their goal, and that of others like them, is to help families come to terms and live as fulfilled a life together as possible.

“A child doesn’t just come straight to a hospice, because clearly it wouldn’t be right for a child to live here for 10 or 12 years,” continues Bridget. “That child is in a normal family, with normal parents and perhaps well brothers and sisters – and that is where the child should be.

“CHASE’s job is to try and help that family to be a family and to do the best for that family and that sick child. It’s not only in nursing and medical care, but also in fun, activities, opportunities, memories and emotional and practical support.”

The story behind CHASE is slightly different to that of many other hospices as they were not born out of a direct tragedy, but instead the inspiration of a lady who read a newspaper article and wanted to make a difference.

“ CHASE was started as an idea of a motivated lady called Julia Lever who lives in South West London,” says Bridget. “She read a newspaper article in one of the national papers about a little girl called Hope, who had a terrible condition and was going to die. Hope was going to be supported by a children’s hospice in Birmingham, so this lady started, with a few friends, to raise a bit of money for them.

“Suddenly, one day, a spark came and she said to herself, ‘why am I sending the money up to Birmingham when there is nothing in the South East to support children like Hope?’

“So in 1995, she sat around her coffee table and spoke to a group of close friends and they started to fundraise. That’s how CHASE was born, and this lady became our founder trustee.”

In 1997, CHASE got its first employee, a researcher. Out of that came the idea that the hospice would provide a community team that could reach out into people’s homes while they were waiting for enough money to get a building. This community service was launched in 1999, and the building was soon to follow – thanks to the enormous generosity of a well-known Surrey family.

“Sarah More-Molyneux, who lives with her husband Michael More-Molyneux at the historic Loseley House in Guildford, was a friend of Julia Lever and wanted to be part of this fundraising initiative,” says Bridget. “The family decided to go to their family trust and gave us this two-acre site, which would have cost us millions.”

But then after such generosity, tragedy struck. The More-Molyneux’s third child, Christopher, tragically died in a quad bike accident on the family estate. Christopher had taken a great interest in the building and loved looking at the plans, and so they decided to name it after him.
 
“The reason why it is not called St Christopher’s, or Christopher House, is that we were very keen right from the beginning that we wouldn’t embarrass any children,” says Bridget. “Allowing them the opportunity to just say, ‘I’m going to Christopher’s’, as if they are just visiting a friend, saves them from the awkward questions.”

Since 1999, CHASE has looked after 650 families. The charity has 95 staff, in various care based, fund raising and auxiliary positions, but the heart of their service is the community team, which is made up of nurses, therapists and health care assistants, who work in the families’ homes every day.

“Children can come to Christopher’s in three different ways,” continues Bridget. “It’s like a children’s hotel really. We give families 15 nights a year and they can book them when they want. It’s not a lot, but with 250 families and only nine bedrooms, obviously the sums wouldn’t add up any other way.

“They can also come for emergency care – if you imagine a crisis at home, these sick children cannot just be babysat at a minute’s notice, because of their needs. So what does the family do? Well, they ring us, and we will either dispatch somebody out or we will look after the child here.

“And the third way, the traditional hospice model, is if the families choose that this is where there child will be at the end of their lives. Obviously, this just happens when it happens, and takes as long as it takes. For the families themselves, we look after them on average for two years after their child has died. After that, we have still had families come back years later to just pop in and see us – which for us, and the people who work here, is wonderful.”

There is no getting away from the sadder aspects that make up children’s hospices. But Bridget is keen to show that while things can obviously be difficult, CHASE’s role is to enable families to get the best out of life, however short that might be. Most days at CHASE are spent partying, and children that aren’t staying at Christopher’s at that particular time can still come along for the day and take part in activities.

A whole host of events are run at the hospice, from summer picnics in the garden to teenagers’ weekends. CHASE also has a host of special friends and patrons who give money to the charity (CHASE costs £3.5 million each year to run, most of which has to be raised through charitable donation) and time.

“Max Clifford is our most active patron. He is a regular visitor and always on the phone,” says Bridget. “When I first met Max, he said, ‘never hesitate to ask. If I can’t help I won’t lead you down the garden path, but if I am able to do something I will bend over backwards to do it’. He has been as good as his word, and that was five years ago.

“The first time I rang him up, I told him, ‘there is a young lad staying here and he is an EastEnders fan, and we think we’ve managed to arrange for him to go to the studios. But he is very poorly, I don’t want his dad to drive and I want to send a nurse with him. I wanted his family to be able to relax and enjoy the day’.

“There was a big crowd of them - mum, dad and friends - so I asked Max if he had any contacts with a limo company. He said, ‘leave it with me and I’ll call you back’. Fifteen minutes later, he’d spoken to the studios and he’d got Shane Ritchie’s filming schedule changed so that we could get the boy there to meet him! They had a fantastic day and Shane even gave him his shirt – although I think that possibly it was the mother who was more thrilled!

“Sadly, the next day, the boy died. No one had expected it, but what the family were able to reflect on was that they hadn’t spent the day worried around a bed with a very sick boy. They took a chance; he had a fantastic time and then died quietly the next day still talking about his trip to EastEnders. It was an incredibly poignant moment.”
Simon Cowell is another celebrity to have actively got involved with CHASE. A friend of Max’s, Simon helped one little girl fulfil her dreams by providing tickets to X-Factor – and even allowed her to use his dressing room for her treatment.

“Another time, he came down to visit one of our girls, who only had a few weeks to live, and he asked if he could bring a gift,” says Bridget. “He brought down a Polaroid camera, so she could take pictures of them together and he could sign them there and then. It was incredibly insightful. No one had prompted him, and it would have been very easy to have just bought her a teddy bear.”
So next time you are gazing wistfully out of a train window, longing for the end of your journey, perhaps spare a thought for those who don’t have a choice as to the length of theirs…

• Christopher’s, Old Portsmouth Road, Artington, Guildford, GU3 1LP. For more details, call 01483 230960 or visit www.chasecare.org.uk

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