Holiday home for cancer sufferers

11 April 2011, 00:00

Heart's found out the opening of a new holiday home - for children with cancer in the Thames Valley - has been put BACK

The Bluebells house in Hampshire - thought up by 9 year old Sebastian Gates from Berkshire who died from the disease in 2003 - won't now open until July.

Sebastian lost his fight with cancer on Christmas Eve in 2003. His mum Jane told Heart that before he passed away, he asked her to create a special place in his memory, "His last wish, which he launched just twelve days before he died, was to be able to help more sick children like himself, by creating a very special and totally unique holiday home."

Sebastian's dream:

Sebastian wanted a special place for sick children and their families to be able to spend quality time together.

Jane explained this was largely inspired by his own experiences, "When you have a very sick child, the number of times that you try to plan a holiday can be many but the number of opportunities for that to actually happen can be few, because the child's condition deteriotes and they need more treatment etc. In our personal situation we had to cancel holidays on no less than twelve occasions."

The holiday home will only be available to families in the South, from Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire. The idea is that it should take families no longer than an hour to get there, so should anything happen and the child needs hospital treatment, they will be close to their medical team. It also means families will be able to stay on at the holiday home if they need to, or are able to get home quickly.

Jane told us, once completed, the site will include some amazing facilities, "There'll be an indoor pool with a spa element. A music room, a games room, a sensory room, a home cinema, a library and lots of other facilities. There will be lots of things that will keep families busy so if they wanted to, they could simply come down for a long weekend or a week, park up and not have to move."

The building will include self-catering accomodation for up to two families at a time and should be up and running by around July 2011.

Find out more about the Sebastian's Action Trust by clicking here