Civic leaders from North East London and West Essex attended a reception at Haven House Children’s Hospice on Wednesday 29 June and were told about plans for the hospice to support 500 children per year by 2020.  

The reception, which was an opportunity for Haven House to thank its key supporters, was attended by the Mayor of Waltham Forest, Cllr Peter Herrington and Mayoress Susan Herrington, Chair of Harlow Council, Cllr Edna Stevens, Speaker of Hackney, Cllr Rosemary Sales and the Mayor of Redbridge, Cllr Gurdial Bhamra.   

The event was held at Haven House’s Holistic Care Centre in Woodford Green. Several of the civic leaders had an impromptu tour of the grounds, playground and Amy Winehouse Foundation Music Room. 

Janis Winehouse and Richard Collins, trustees of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, also attended the reception. The foundation funds Haven House’s music therapy service and earlier this year it awarded a new grant to allow the service to operate five days a week from September.

During the reception, Haven House Chief Executive Mike Palfreman informed guests about Vision 2020, Haven House’s five-year strategy which aims to increase the number of children that it supports in North and North East London, West Essex and East Hertfordshire to 500 per year by the end of the decade.

Supporting more children will mean it will cost £5 million a year to run the hospice by 2020. The charity receives around a quarter of its funding from the Government - the rest it has to raise itself.

Mike Palfreman, Haven House Chief Executive, said: “We had a wonderful evening with many of our key supporters and it was great to be able to inform them about Vision 2020, our five-year strategy.

“We always appreciate the time and commitment of our supporters and their generosity will help us to care for more local life-limited children and their families in the years ahead.”

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