Be my Guest… Katie Hook
Demelza Hospice Care for Children celebrated its silver anniversary recently and is LEEA’s chosen charity of the year, attending the LEEA Awards 2024 at The Dorchester Hotel in London in October. Here to tell us more is Katie Hook, regional fundraising manager, Demelza.
The charity was created in honour of Demelza Phillips, daughter of Derek and Jennifer Phillips, who sadly died of a brain tumour aged 24. Phillips worked at a children’s hospice in Birmingham and was inspired by their work and its impact, inspiring her parents to establish a children’s hospice in the South-East of England.
“Demelza is a regional charity that's over 25 years old now, inspired by a young lady called Demelza Phillips.
We work very closely with her family and they have an impact on everything that happens at Demelza, which is fantastic, even to this day. So Demelza cares for children with serious or life limiting illnesses from the first diagnosis until whenever we are needed and of course, their families as well and the wider family,” said Hook.
“We offer services such as counselling therapies and funding, services like the hydrotherapy pool, where children can come and play safely. As you can imagine, a lot of places aren’t always accessible to children with very complex medical needs so this is a lovely space for them to come and play with their siblings. We also work very closely with the siblings of children, and they come along and they have overnight stays and fun with other children in the same situation.”
The charity is based in southeast London, Kent, East Sussex and West Kent.
“We have a large site in Kent and a hospice site in Eltham, which is a home from home environment. Our teams also go out into the community to care for children. I've been working with Demelza as a regional fundraising manager for nearly two years. We all love what we do. We're all very passionate about our cause,” added Hook.
“LEEA got in touch with the charity as it had a strong connection with the charity and of course, we delightfully accepted to be their chosen charity of the year and now we are very excited to working with them over the next 12 months.
“There are an enormous, varied number of ways that people can get involved with fundraising for the charity – from crazy events like throwing yourself out of an aeroplane to running a marathon. And we also have our Bubble Rush, which is a colour run. It's enormous fun, and for every age group. We run four Bubble Rush events throughout the year, the next one being June 23. Alternatively, there are plenty of other ways you can fundraise from your home, including a cake bake or head shave and plenty of people knit and sell or join their local WI groups and fundraise through groups such as The Rotary Club.
“Last year Demelza celebrated its 25th anniversary, which was very exciting. We had plenty of celebrations internally and externally with staff and volunteers coming to all of our sites. It was also a chance to give an update on where we are as a charity so that everybody has a consistent messaging and knows where we're heading to, what our aims are, and what our strategic goals are.
“You may have noticed we rebranded as well. So, we've been rebranded for almost a couple of years now.
We moved from the clown and the red to a more vibrant colour, which is having a really positive significant impact out there, which is fantastic news.”
Click HERE to watch the video on LEEA YouTube.
For more information and to donate to the charity visit https://www.demelza.org.uk
