About Martin House Childrens Hospice
About This Shop
Martin House, Yorkshire’s hospice for children and young people, was the second children’s hospice in the country and the first in the North of England and was officially opened by our Patron in September 1987.
The appeal to build Martin House was launched in February 1984. Two years later enough funds were raised to commence building. The foundation stone was laid by HRH the Duchess of Kent in September 1986 and in August 1987 we welcomed our first children.
The principal objective of Martin House is to provide care and support, free of charge, to children and young people with a life-limiting condition, and their families. Martin House provides a home from home environment, and we offer help in emergencies, symptom control, nursing and practical care, terminal care, and bereavement support. We also offer care and support to the families in their own homes. We provide care for up to nine families in the main house and six young people in the teenage unit at any one time. Martin House is currently caring for 320 children and their families and supporting a further 125 bereaved families from across the Yorkshire region.
Over 54% of the young people we care for at Martin House are over the age of thirteen and 29% are over the age of sixteen years of age. For many years the teenagers have been asking to be cared for with young people of their own age in a more appropriate atmosphere. Therefore, a £2m appeal was launched on 14 February 2001 to create the UK’s first Teenage Unit within the grounds of Martin House. We were delighted to welcome our first teenagers to the new Teenage Unit on 25 June 2002. This special purpose-built 6-bed unit, exclusively for teenagers, offers an increased level of independence and make a real difference to the everyday lives of these young people. It also means that as we now have a total of 15 bedrooms between the two buildings we are able to offer more respite care visits to the children and young people who currently visit Martin House. The new teenage unit was officially opened on 11 September 2002 by the Duchess of Kent.