Teesside baby hospice giving assurances it's 'business as usual'
Zoe's Place in Middlesbrough says its services will continue despite its Liverpool branch facing closure
A Teesside baby hospice is giving assurances about its future financial situation as its sister branch is facing closure.
Zoe's Place in Middlesbrough - the one of only three in the UK - is currently looking after 40 little ones with seven on a waiting list.
Staff there say it is "business as usual" for them despite challenges at its Liverpool site.
Summa Gill is from the charity and said: "We're actually 20 years of care this year so we're very much on-going. We're always fundraising but in terms of the children we support and those 40 families that come to us, each week, every day we're still going ahead to deliver the care that those families need from us.
"It takes a big fundraising effort from the charity to keep going. I think it's on average around £1.4 million to keep the hospice going all-year round. I think what's always at the forefront of our minds is that we as a charity have to raise 75 percent of that to keep our hospice services going.
"We are a small, local charity in Middlesbrough. Although we've been there a long time, we don't have big budgets to advertise what we do. Our money goes into caring for the children we support and they come to us for a variety of needs, often from birth. We're described by families that we support as a lifeline.
"They'll come to us with genetic disorders or sometimes if there's been an injury at birth or if something's been developed like a certain disease or disability and things are just tough at home, we offer a respite service to these families.
"It's very often the case that family members just aren't equipped to step in and support. It's hard enough to get family members to look after a baby who's got absolutely no health conditions, so asking somebody to look after a baby that might stop breathing or you know needs to be tube-fed, it's a big ask.
"Our team in Middlesbrough is derived from medical nurses and a care team that are expertly trained to look after the needs specifically for babies aged 0-5 and we're the UK's only baby-specific hospice facility."