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The St Gemma's Hospice team cares for people in Leeds who are living with cancer and other terminal illnesses. We give expert medical and emotional support to patients on our wards, our Day Hospice and in people‘s own homes, 365 days of the year. Our Young Peoples’ Service and Bereavement Support Team supports patients’ families and carers, whenever they need it. We help over 3,000 local people each year. We are extremely proud to say that our support is free for patients and families. But they are not free for us to provide! It costs £25,000 each and every day to run all of the Hospice’s services. We couldn’t do this without the local community's amazing help. Your support means we can carry on being a friendly, warm and safe place of expert care at the heart of the local community.

At Martin House, we provide care and support, free of charge, to local children and young people with a life-limiting condition, and to their families. The children and families we support are your neighbours, your work colleagues, your friends and families. We are central to the communities we serve. We aim to provide a home from home environment and families can use any mix of a wide range of services, including planned respite care, symptom control, terminal care and bereavement support. We also offer care and support to families in their own home. We remain true to our original philosophy that the families we care for, and their choices, must be placed first, and we try to listen to, respect and value each member of the family as individuals with their own needs. In this, our 30th year, we will care for and support more than 400 local children and their families, at a total cost of some £6 million. Most of this comes from voluntary donations from public and private sources. Why do people value the support of Martin House? To quote one young mum we interviewed recently, “When I’m at home, on a good night I’m up to my little girl 6 or 7 times a night. On a bad night I get no sleep at all. So what I look forward to most when coming to Martin House is the certain knowledge of a good night’s sleep, with the Care Team looking after my little girl at least as well as I would be able to do at home.” Another said “Tell them it is like being blindfolded and then being made to walk the gangplank, never knowing when the end might be. There are plenty of wobbles along the way.” At all times in Martin House, alongside each poorly child is at least one care team member, across 3 shifts over 24 hours - that’s 3 carers to each child. Plus, our specialist Community team supports families in their own homes. Our specialist Bereavement Team works with families for up to 3 years after the death of their child, and sometimes longer. End of Life care is supported by our Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Medicine. Our Clinical Psychologist supports our bereavement work, and pursues invaluable research into many areas of hospice work. So our work is understandably very human resource hungry, and very costly. With your help, we can continue to work towards ensuring we are here for families over the next 30 years and beyond. Thank you for your support!