18.06.2026
Brian House patron Dan Whiston has paid a special visit to the children’s hospice as it marks Children’s Hospice Week, shining a light on the vital work of such charities across the country.
Dan spent time speaking to nurses and clinical team at the hospice, as well as playing with Oliver and Solomon who were at the hospice for care during the day.
Children’s Hospice Week (June 15-21) highlights the importance of children’s hospices across the country, especially at a time when government funding isn’t meeting the need of local families who rely on them for dedicated, expert care and support for children whose lives are limited.
Brian House, which celebrates its 30th birthday this year, is the second least funded children’s hospice in the UK, receiving just 11% of its annual costs from central funds. It means the Bispham-bases hospice relies on its community – the people it cares for – for support.
And Dan, who has recently held a birthday fundraiser at his businesses, Thingamajigz, is calling on the people of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre to do all it can to get behind its local children’s hospice.
“It’s really important that everybody knows that Brian House needs help,” he said.
“It needs people to get on board with support – anything you can do, however big or small. I think sometimes people think they can’t make a big difference, but it does. I’ve been a patron here for a long time so I know every little gesture, every little bit of help someone gives to Brian House, goes such a long way.
“It’s so important that we work together as a team across Blackpool, the Fylde coast and further to help this wonderful place.”
Brian House Chief Executive, David Houston, said: “Brian House is in the terrible position of being the second least funded children’s hospice in the UK. We only receive an 11% contribution dedicated to Brian House from the state.
“This means our rallying call is desperate, and must continuously reach further in order to provide the same level of outstanding care for our families.
“Although it’s a fragment of our annual running costs, the funding we receive is crucial to the sustainability of many of the services we have been proud to provide for the last 30 years. In fact, if the government does not maintain it, vital services will be cut.”
Children’s Hospice Week is a week of focus for dedicated children’s hospices led by Together for Short Lives, the umbrella organisation for children’s hospices across the UK.
This week, it has published a report about how some children’s hospices are cutting vital services amid rising operating costs which are not being sustainable funded by local NHS bodies and councils.
It shows that children’s hospices spent, on average, 18% more on their services in 2025-26 compared to the previous year. This is mainly due to the children they are caring for living longer with highly complex medical needs, often requiring novel technologies, specialist nursing, symptom management and multidisciplinary support to manage care safely.
Yet despite the vital care that children’s hospices provide, funding from local bodies is failing to keep pace. For example, in England funding from integrated care boards rose by just 4% in 2025/26 compared to the previous year.
Together for Short Lives and children’s hospices across the UK are now calling on the government to act urgently to fund children’s hospices fairly.
Nick Carroll, Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives, said: “These critical services, and the families they care for, continue to be let down by a system which varies wildly according to where they live and, too often, overlooks them. As demand for children’s hospice care grows and becomes more complex, unfair and unsustainable funding is pulling us further away from the government’s goal: that every person who needs palliative or end of life care in England will have equitable access to high quality support, shaped by what matters to them, their families and carers.”
Read the full Together for Short Lives report here.
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