Childrens Hospice South West: Inside Little Bridge House's support

William, 15, and Lewis, 13, both have a condition called congenital hypomyelination neuropathy and have been supported by Children’s Hospice South West’s Little Bridge House since being referred 14 years ago. 

Mum, Zoe, and dad, Gareth, tell you about their time at the hospice with William and Lewis and their two other children, Chloe and Oliver...

The children loved it from the moment we arrived. 

Lewis and William’s favourite activities are the hydrotherapy pool and the sensory room.

The gardens are great as they’re fully accessible for wheelchairs. 

The boys love music therapy too and when they were younger, the messy playroom was always somewhere they wanted to get creative in.

At home, Chloe and Oliver used to have to go to their grandparents while we went to hospital appointments.

But at Little Bridge House, the children had the full attention of us and the sibling support team. 

Chloe really enjoyed the sibling weekends and as Oliver got older, he used the hospice stays as a chance to spend time with us or do some things on his own.

The care team were there if they needed to talk but there was no pressure to join in with anything if they didn’t want to.

As William and Lewis were being cared for at Little Bridge House, we felt reassured leaving them for a few hours to go out with our other children.

We would go to the beach or the movies, the things most people take for granted. 

It felt special for Chloe and Oliver to do normal activities without having to bring two wheelchairs and medical equipment.

Deciding where we wanted to go out and then leaving within five minutes was such a change from our usual day-to-day life.

It takes around an hour to get the boys ready and out of the house.

But Little Bridge House gave us the freedom to be spontaneous.

When we were first referred to Children’s Hospice South West, the nearest hospice to us, Charlton Farm, hadn’t opened yet so we went to Little Bridge House.

Although we could have moved to Charlton Farm once it had opened, we chose to stay with Little Bridge House.

As time has gone on, we are using our time at Little Bridge House in different ways.

In the early days, it was a place where we could spend quality time with all our children doing fun activities.

In 2017, we went through a difficult time with William and started to have serious discussions with the care team about his end of life care, which was overwhelming.

It didn’t take away our feelings, but we had a bit more understanding and we could plan things for the future which helped.

We could ask about anything and everything that we wanted to know about. They explained all the things you want to know the answers to but never want to ask the questions. It was more like talking to a friend than a specialist in that field.

When the time comes, and the boys die, we want to go to Little Bridge House as they have been such a big part of our lives. 

It’s such an important network of support for us as a family.

You can read about the care and support that Children’s Hospice South West provides to families by going online and visiting the website www.chsw.org.uk/ourcare