Virtual meeting - speaker

At its 58 th consecutive weekly Zoom meeting the Rotary Club of Llantwit Major was pleaseto welcome Sorrell Mayo to talk to it about Tŷ Hafan and the palliative care and support services it provides for life-limited children and young people and their families.The hospice at Sully opened in 1999 and the premises have been regularly upgraded over the years and now include a state of the art hydrotherapy pool, a den for teenagers and a familytherapy room. The gardens are a haven of peace and tranquillity. The names of children who have been at Tŷ Hafan are played in the garden. Some claim that their names live on in bird song.

The pandemic has been challenging for Tŷ Hafan and for families with life-limited children but the care team has pulled together fantastically to maintain services. A refurbishment project had begun at the beginning of 2020 and proceeded successfully. Tŷ Hafan covers southern Wales and has a close relationship with Tŷ Gobaith, a separate charity which covers North Wales. They have cooperated in a Family Voices project in which families speak of the value of their services. The project is intended persuade the Welsh Government to increase its support for children’s hospices through a sustainable life line fund. The sector in Wales receives less 10% of its income from the Government compared with over 20% in England and Northern Ireland and 50% in Scotland.

Tŷ Hafan relies very heavily on fundraising. It costs £12,000 a day to keep its doors open. Sorrell illustrated Tŷ Hafan’s services with a film about Archie who died of a rare disease. His parents spoke movingly of the support given by Tŷ Hafan as a home from home and its role in creating lasting memories of Archie for them. The Rotary Club is grateful to Sorrell for her excellent presentation about Tŷ Hafan and the important services it provides in Wales.