When you visit the Palmers Green Community Festival on Sunday 1st September, be sure to visit the stand run by Noah's Ark Children's Hospice. This is a locally based charity with a difference: a hospice without its own building. Instead of patients coming to them, they come to the patients and care for them - and the other members of their families - in famliar home surroundings.
Noah's Ark estimate that there are 900 children in the boroughs they serve - Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington - who are suffering from what they call "life threatening and life limiting" illnesses. But in addition to these 900 children, their parents and siblings are also subject to the stresses that come from having a seriously ill child in the family, and they too are in need to respite and a bit of TLC and "me time". To cater for these other affected people Noah's Ark provides Specialist Play Workers, a Sibling Support Programme, Family Support Volunteers, a Family Activities Programme, Parent Groups and a Family Link Team.
You too can come to the rescue by donating to Noah's Ark, by organising a fundraising event or by joining their teams of volunteers. There is very wide range of roles to suit different aptitudes and full training is provided.
