Jessie May Adds New Specialist Nurse to Team Thanks to Matchroom Grant

Local charity Jessie May is celebrating after receiving a grant of £30,000 from the Matchroom Sport Charitable Foundation to recruit a new Senior Nurse to its growing team.

The charity, which provides specialist nursing and respite support to children with terminal illnesses and their families in the South West, says the appointment of the band 6 nurse will allow the nursing teams to provide the personally tailored care so valued by the families on their caseload.
 
The funding was granted after the charity appealed to the Matchroom Sport Charitable Foundation which was set up a year ago by World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn, who is a Patron of Jessie May.
 
Jessie May head of fundraising, Julian Withers, said: “In recent years we have seen a growth in the number of children we are caring for, the length of time we are caring for that child and an expansion of the geographical area we cover.
 
“As such we recently restructured the our care team in order to be able to respond to these changes and to ensure that we continue to provide the high quality and individualised care to the children already on our caseload while having the flexibility to be able to
accept new referrals.
 
“We now have three care teams in place.  One covering Swindon and Wiltshire, one covering Bath, North Somerset and South Bristol and a third covering North Bristol & South Gloucestershire.
 
“This new organisational structure for providing our care means that each team has a manageable caseload of around 50 families. Each of these teams is led by a Senior Nurse Team leader. Two of these team leaders were in place and now we are able to recruit a third thanks to the kind support of the Matchroom Sport Charitable Foundation.
 
“Although our staff numbers are rising due to an increase in the services and areas we cover, we find that our nursing provision works best with small teams of nurses covering small numbers of families, meaning a truly personal and high quality level of care for people going through an extremely stressful time.
 
“The team leader is responsible for managing and supporting their small team of professionally qualified children’s nurses who regularly visit children providing clinical and personal care, as well as providing severely disabled children with stimulating activities to help make the most of their short lives. The team leader will also provide direct care to children and families.”
 
Barry Hearn originally founded Matchroom in 1982 and over the past 35 years it has donated millions of pounds to a wide-range of charities throughout its many sporting activities.
 
He said: “I am delighted that we have been able to help Jessie May fund a new member of their nursing team, which will help provide the crucial assistance to families which they provide. I have seen first-hand the outstanding work that Jessie May does for so many people in the Bristol area. We remain dedicated to helping charities through theMatchroom Sport Charitable Foundation.”
 
Jessie May currently supports 129 terminally ill children in Bristol, Bath, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. Providing specialist palliative nursing care within the familiar and nurturing surroundings of their own homes Jessie May is the only charity to provide this free service to terminally ill children in the area and is widely regarded as one of the leading expert providers in this field.
 
It costs around £1,400,000 to provide this care yearly and the charity is almost entirely dependent on public support.
 
Julian continued: “This post is vital in enabling Jessie May to continue to move forward with our ambitious plans to reach the very many children and families who currently do not have a service like Jessie May to support them at home. We know that there are many more who live in our current service area who could benefit from our service.
 
“The impact that this new Senior Nurse will have on the families we care is astonishing and we are very grateful for the wonderful donation. We can't change the prognosis of the terminally ill children in our care but we can help more families to make the most of their short but precious lives, as well as cope with the unending pressures of caring for their child at home.”
 
For more information about Jessie May visit www.jessiemay.org.uk