Charity plans cancer support holiday home

A charity plans to build a holiday home which would provide a supportive space for families experiencing cancer.

An appeal has been set up by child cancer charity, Sophie's Journey, based in Lincoln, to raise money for a palliative holiday home which would be within a 30-minute drive of Lincoln County Hospital.

Stacey Southwell, 42, set up the charity, which provides free holidays for families experiencing cancer, in memory of her daughter Sophie Robinson, who died aged 12 from a brain tumour in 2016.

"It's very important that we've got something like this within our community. It will make a massive difference to families not having to travel further afield," she said.

After consulting with healthcare professionals and families, Southwell said the holiday home would be "the first of its kind in Lincolnshire".

The charity needs to raise £250,000 through community donations and from local businesses before it can look at finding a specific location.

The fully-accessible holiday home would include ramps, rails, adapted chairs and hoists, and be a place where families can relax comfortably.

Doctors and nurses would be given quick access to patients if needed, with local funeral services on standby if the unexpected happens, the charity said.

While Sophie's Journey has two caravans at Golden Sands Holiday Park in Mablethorpe, where it provides free holidays to children living with cancer and their families, Southwell said the journey could be "exhausting, stressful, and painful at times".

"Our goal is to change that," she said.

"Caravans are fantastic but when you're on palliative care you need that little bit more of a comfortable setting."

Southwell, who marked the 10-year anniversary of her daughter's death on Monday, said the charity and plans for the holiday home were "keeping my daughter's legacy and name alive".

She said: "Sophie was all about helping others as well. I do think she would be very proud of what we've all achieved in her name."

People or businesses who sponsor a tile for the holiday home would have their name displayed on a plaque in the lodge and be invited to the grand opening, the charity said.

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