National children’s charity Lifelites has donated a package of specialist technologies for terminally ill and disabled children at Demelza South East London Children’s Hospice in Eltham. The children and young people who visit the hospice will be able to use the equipment to play games, be creative and communicate with their families, something which may be impossible for them to do otherwise. The package of equipment and services - which is worth more than £50,000 over its four year lifespan - was donated completely free of charge by Lifelites. The charity also provides ongoing technical support and training for the hospice staff.

Items donated included iPads and touchscreen computers installed with lots of games and other software specially designed to be accessible for children with disabilities.

The hospice also had some of their older pieces of equipment updated. One of these items was the Magic Carpet, which was previously donated by Lifelites. The Magic Carpet is a portable box which projects moving images on to the floor, a wheelchair or a bed, which children can interact with. This technology gives them the chance to escape the confines of their condition and play one of the many games or animations, such as playing football or splashing in the sea.

The staff also received training on how to use their Eyegaze. This is a piece of equipment which allows those with limited mobility to control a computer using just by moving their eyes. By using the Eyegaze, children who struggle to communicate with their family and their carers are able to do so – often for the first time.

Ann Fagg, Care Services Lead at Demelza South East London, said: “This very generous donation has made a world of difference to the children who use our hospice and its facilities. They are able to experience whole new environments on the Magic Carpet, while the iPads and Eyegaze enable them to communicate in new ways as well as obtain a reaction from the slightest movement by a sound or visual response.”

Simone Enefer-Doy, Chief Executive of Lifelites said: “We are thrilled to be able to provide equipment for the children at Demelza South East London who have life-limiting, life-threatening and disabling conditions. The magical technology we have donated can be used to play, to be creative and communicate, and enrich the lives of these children and their families, for as long as is possible. We couldn’t have provided this package if it wasn’t for the generosity of our donors, so for this we are incredibly grateful.”

Among the local donors was Freemason Paul Flowerday. who raised over £4,000 for the project by taking part in a Santa Run last December. Others who helped to make this project possible are the Provincial Grand Lodge of West Kent, Children with Cancer UK, the Khoo Teck Puat foundation, GamesAid and Microsoft. Lifelites has donated equipment to every children’s hospice in the British Isles over the last 16 years, and continues to provide new technology and ongoing support to ensure that children in hospices have unlimited possibilities.

Lifelites empowers 10,000 terminally ill and disabled children and young people in hospices by providing them with opportunities to benefit from the power of assistive and inclusive technologies to learn, to be creative, to communicate and to take control. There is a Lifelites project in every baby and children’s hospice across the British Isles. The hospices do not pay a penny towards their Lifelites project and all of Lifelites’ work is funded by donations: the equipment, ongoing technical support and training at each hospice costs around £50,000 over four years.

Demelza Hospice Care for Children is a charity in the South East, providing vital care to hundreds of families across South East London, Kent and East Sussex.As a charity, not part of the NHS, Demelza is reliant on fundraising, donations and gifts in Wills to raise over £10.5million needed every year to provide care to seriously ill children and their families.

Submitted by Jane Shotliff