       IDS UK offers support for Naomi House Hospice - January 08CHRISTMAS is a time for giving - and Hampshire based healthcare marketing firm IDS UK made sure its seasonal message was more than a goodwill gesture. When Chief Executive Edward Pickering heard fund raisers at local children's hospice Naomi House wanted support from local businesses, he was more than happy for IDS UK, who distribute and display charity and healthcare leaflets in GP surgeries and pharmacies, to help. Instead of sending out cards and presents costing £1,000 to their customers, Edward and the team based at Durley, decided to donate the money to Naomi House. “We only have seven employees at our Durley head office,” explained Mr Pickering, “but they all felt that the £1,000 usually spent on customers at Christmas could be put to better use. Naomi House fully supported the idea and provided us with practical assistance enabling us to explain to our clients why we would not be investing in cards and gifts and that the money would be given to our local children’s hospice instead. Our clients applauded the idea and so everyone benefited.” The money will go towards a new complex that will be called ‘jacksplace@naomihouse’ in honour of local businessman Jack Witham who bequeathed £6 million to get the project off the ground. It will incorporate ten bedrooms for young people and their families and be designed to meet their medical, mobility and emotional needs. Naomi House is a purpose-built children’s hospice that provides a homely environment for children and young people with life-limiting conditions that mean they will not live to become adults. Situated just north of Winchester, the hospice offers palliative care that includes respite, terminal and bereavement care and support to children and their families in central southern England. It costs around £2.5 million every year, raised from charitable giving, to keep the service running.
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