Gym Members and Staff from Wigan Based Gym
Fundraising pagePrior to 1991 there were no dedicated respite or palliative support facilities in Lancashire for families of children with life shortening conditions, and it was in response to a plea for funding for a children’s hospice from the Haydock family from Leyland, whose son Derek was suffering from a life threatening condition, that the concept of Derian House was born. The Haydock family launched their Fundraising Campaign and raised a fantastic £25,000 towards the capital cost of the hospice. However, with a life threatened child to care for in addition to their fundraising efforts, the family and their group of committed supporters, who later went on to form the Leyland Support Group, realized that the project to build a hospice on such a scale was beyond their capabilities and they approached Ed Wraith, a Senior Paediatrican at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital at Pendlebury, and Derek Haydock’s consultant, for help and advice. At his request, in 1991, the Chairmanship of the Appeal to build Derian House was taken on by local professional and businesswoman, Margaret Vinten, a role which she wholeheartedly embraced. Visiting families throughout the region who were struggling to cope with the trauma of caring for a child with a life shortening illness, and speaking to staff at other children’s hospices in Yorkshire and beyond, who explained that without the facilities they provided, families faced an extremely uncertain future, she determined that Derian House was no longer an optional extra, but an absolute necessity. With this in mind, she recruited the support of friends, benefactors, celebrities, companies and organisations throughout the region, all of whom got behind the fundraising campaign. With their help, she succeeded in driving forward the highly successful Capital Appeal from its concept to its conclusion, with the completed hospice, its name a combination of the Haydock brothers’ names Derek and Ian, opening in October 1993. Since then, the hospice has developed a partnership of care with families which is sensitive to the needs of the whole family in providing an approach to care and support as individual as they are. There is no doubt, it is this individualistic approach, tailored to the needs of each family, and developed in association with contact teams and key worker support systems, that ensures a structured support facility whilst acknowledging and respecting parents as the primary carer in each and every situation. In looking back over the past twenty four years, and all that has been achieved, we also look forward to the future and the fresh challenges it will bring. Whatever those challenges may be, we will continue to do our utmost in striving to meet the highest standards of care, and the needs of the many families who depend on Derian House for the care and support it provides for them and their children.
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The National Three Peaks Challenge takes in the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales, often in 24 hours.