This week we’re celebrating Trustees’ Week (Monday 1 – Friday 5 November). Our trustees are volunteers who come from all walks of life and who bring with them a huge and diverse number of skills, knowledge and experience. Their role is vital in overseeing the strategic direction of our hospice, achieving high standards, ensuring good governance and driving our charity forward.

We currently have 10 trustees that make up our board at Haven House and this week we would like to thank each one of them for their commitment and dedication to our hospice.

Meet our new board member

Rachel Brodie has recently joined our board. Rachel’s career has seen her work in educational publishing and for the last seven years in large-scale B2B exhibitions and conferences. Her current role is Portfolio Director, Education at Hyve Group.

Rachel decided to become a trustee due to her personal connection to Haven House. Rachel’s son Isaac was born in 2016 with a mass on his brainstem that was sadly untreatable and incurable. Rachel and her husband Steven spent Isaac’s precious final days together at Haven House.

Rachel hopes that her personal experience with our hospice will enable her to share helpful insights into the future development of the support services we offer to carers. Rachel will also be a familiar face around the hospice meeting regularly with families at our coffee mornings.

Rachel continues: “I became a trustee because I am passionate about community engagement and because Haven House holds a special place in my heart. I am keen to support the wonderful Haven House team as they continue to grow, develop and shape the future of care.

“The care that we received from Haven House throughout Isaac's short life was absolutely wonderful, and it's hard to put into words just how much of a difference this made to us, transforming an absolutely impossible time into something bearable and, at times, truly incredible.

We were able to spend Isaac's last hours in private together, holding him close, singing to him, praying for him and making sure he knew he was loved and cherished more than anything. I hope my personal experience, together with my professional experience, means I can be a supporter, advisor, challenger and advocate for the hospice and contribute to its future success.