Woburn Luxury Gift Fair
19th and 20th Nov 2024
Keech Hospice Care is an all-age hospice, providing care and support for children with a life-limiting condition from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire & Milton Keynes, and adults from Bedfordshire, and their loved ones.
The hospice was built for the community by the community. It has been caring for adult patients for over 30 years and child patients for over 20 years. We provide a range of services both within our hospice buildings in Streatley and now in Bedford, but more extensively out in our local community.
We believe care should be provided wherever the patient would like to receive it, therefore we provide care in the community or in our adult in-patient unit. This may be for pain and symptom management or for end-of-life care.
Our children’s service provides care for families in their own homes as well as offering special in-house group sessions such as a pre-school tots and toys session, teenage groups, and stays on the in-patient unit for treatment, respite, and end-of-life care. Our specialist play team work with families on adapted ways to play and interact with children, and they organise days out and special events for families to enjoy, creating special memories in a safe and supportive environment.
Our family support workers provide pre- and post-bereavement sessions for children and run a special support group called Sparklers which is for all children and young people who have a relative or loved one receiving care at Keech. For example, this could be a sibling of a child patient or a child of an adult patient.
Like all hospices, our services are free to those that use them and those accessing them can either be referred to us or can self-refer. As is the case for most hospices, only 30% of our funding comes from the government/public sector, leaving Keech Hospice Care to raise over £7m per year (£19,000 p/day) to deliver our services. For every £1 donated to Keech Hospice Care, 88p goes directly to providing care and support.