West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper recently met with Claire House Children’s Hospice Chief David Pastor to discuss the charity’s work and the children and families they support in West Lancashire.



Claire House opened in 1998 on the Wirral, caring for just 10 children at that time. It now looks after over 330. Over the past 5 years, the hospice has seen an 84% increase in the number of children supported and a 132% in bereavement support.

Last year they received an unbelievable 143 referrals. The majority of the children they care for now come from north of the river Mersey, including five children and families in West Lancashire.

Sadly, for every child they reach, there is one they cannot, mainly due to lack of funding. They have therefore launched an appeal to reach every dying child by building a second hospice in Liverpool and increasing the services they provide across Merseyside and West Lancashire.

West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper said:
“The work Claire House do to support children and families across the northwest including West Lancashire is vital to ensure families are not left in isolation to deal with the trauma of caring for a seriously or terminally child.

“Despite the difficult circumstances, the charity helps these children to live life to the full regardless of how short their life might be.

“I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Health Secretary calling for more funding for children’s palliative care and support the hospice’s ‘Every Dying Child’ campaign to help raise funds to enable the service to reach as many children as possible.”

Mr David Pastor, Claire House CEO said:
“We are currently only reaching half of children who are in need of palliative care and need to see a rise in government funding from £11m to £25m for the children’s hospice grant.

“Having the support of Rosie Cooper MP and others is important so we can get our message across to government and the wider public through our ‘every Dying Child’ campaign.

“Our thanks to Rosie for supporting our campaign and the children and families we support in West Lancashire and across the North West.”