Angela Mercer will oversee the day-to-day running and operation of the new hospice, which is currently being built on the southern boundary of Worcester.

She will manage a skilled nursing team, and is already working with health and care professionals in the area to raise awareness of the hospice and the comprehensive paediatric palliative care service that Acorns offers.

Angela will also work closely with the project manager, Mike Cartledge, as the building work progresses, and is currently working through each room in detail, looking at the fixtures and fittings and all the finer details which will turn the hospice from a house into a home.

When built, the hospice will have 10 bedrooms, family accommodation, facilities for teenagers a multi-sensory room, activity rooms, hydrotherapy pool and an acre of landscaped interactive gardens, which will be used by more than 250 life-limited youngsters across the three counties.

"Being here and watching the hospice grow is tremendously exciting.

"One of the great things is that Acorns is family led.

"Right from the beginning the new hospice has had huge input from families and the children themselves; the service is very much about meeting their needs." says Angela, who has been involved in the project since its conception some five years ago.

Lots of experience

Angela's background is in nursing and health visiting.

She joined Acorns 14 years ago, when she worked in the community team based at the charity's first children's hospice in Selly Oak, south Birmingham, providing emotional and practical support for families in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

She was then appointed head nurse at Acorns second hospice in Walsall when it opened in 1999 and where she has worked ever since.

She feels her new appointment completes the circle.

"It's so good to know that finally, some of the families I first worked with, will soon have access to their own local hospice and will no longer have to make the long and often difficult journey to Birmingham to access much-needed respite care.

"When we first opened Acorns in Selly Oak it soon became clear that we needed extra beds, we simply could not meet demand.

"Now families in the three counties will have something so much nearer and easily accessible.

"Day care will become a real option and parents will be able to enjoy things that many of us take for granted, such as a going out for a meal, a shopping trip or simply spending time out with the rest of the family.

"Spontaneity is very difficult when you are looking after a child with complex needs," explains Angela.

Mother's gratitude

The importance of the new hospice was recently brought home to Angela when a bereaved mother who Acorns supported many years ago contacted her.

"Although the family no longer use our services, it was rewarding to know that, even after all this time, they still think about how Acorns helped them through the most difficult and painful time in their lives.

"It says a lot about what we can achieve."