Members of the team from "Dum Pro Julii" (House for Julie) – the first Children’s Hospice to be set up in the Czech Republic, recently returned to the UK for their second visit to see staff at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice.

The team first visited Bluebell Wood in 2018 whilst planning the beginnings of Julie Children’s Hospice. As the first children’s hospice in their homeland, they found the visit to a well-established hospice very helpful. Now, five years later, they made a return visit after providing three years of home care for families in the Czech Republic.

During the visit, the team met with Bluebell Wood staff from all areas of the hospice to help gain an insight and ideas of how to move forward with their own hospice, which is now just one year away from being built.  

Renata Kellnerová, from Dum Pro Julii said: "Having our vision of the first children´s hospice in the Czech Republic now closer to the reality, we were keen to visit Bluebell Wood Children´s Hospice again.

"We spent a very intensive two days there and would like to thank the whole team for sharing their experience and passion, and for being so friendly.

"We came home with increased knowledge, inspiration, and courage for the next steps of our journey."

Emma Doughty, Care Services Director at Bluebell Wood said: "We were delighted to see the expanding team from Julie Children’s Hospice. We caught up on how their plans are progressing and enjoyed telling them about how we work at Bluebell Wood.

"The visit was extremely successful, and they have gone away with a wealth of information and ideas which will support them in developing the first children's hospice in their country.

"We hope they can take great inspiration from their visit with us and wish them every success in their exciting journey."