Haven House Children’s Hospice has announced that it’s caring for more children than ever before and that it’s on track to support 500 children each year by 2020.

The hospice in Woodford Green has published its annual report for 2016 which shows an increase in families using its services and more people volunteering with the charity.

To accompany the report Haven House has unveiled a collection of colourful ‘emojis’ to illustrate the charity’s achievements from the past year.

In 2015/16, Haven House supported 337 children and young people across its services - an increase on the previous year. This included activities for 42 of the charity’s ‘Buddies’, the brothers and sisters of children who visit Haven House.

In addition the hospice continued to support 90 bereaved families through an annual memory day and with bereavement and counselling services.

Haven House has also seen an increase in the number of volunteers giving their time to the charity. Almost 340 people volunteered at the hospice, in one of Haven House’s four charity shops or at a fundraising event last year.

In October 2015, Haven House launched Vision 2020, an ambitious five-year strategy which aims to grow its services in order support 500 children each in North and North East London, West Essex and East Hertfordshire by the end of the decade.

Mike Palfreman, Chief Executive of Haven House, said: “Today’s annual report shows we are providing care and support to more life-limited children and their families than ever before, but it is still the case that not enough families are accessing hospice care services in our local area.

“We are on track to support 500 children each year by 2020, but this can only happen with the continued generosity of our local communities.

“We still need them to help raise funds and raise awareness of our work.”

To read our annual report please visit this page.