by BERYL PATEMAN

BEAUTIFUL, but delicate: the butterfly is a perfect emblem for children's hospices.

It symbolises the fragility and brevity of the lives of the youngsters who use them.

September 23-30 is Children's Hospice Week and butterflies will play a key role in the awareness and fund-raising campaign.

Throughout this month supporters will be selling butterfly badges and women's organisations, brownies, guides and primary schools will be staging butterfly bun bakes (cake stalls and coffee mornings).

The GUARDIAN has teamed up with Cheshire's hospice, Hope House, to highlight the vital care and support provided.

As well as drumming up support for our local centre we are asking our readers to encourage their children to colour a butterfly and help to decorate the charity's shop at Nantwich.

The brightest and best entries will not only go on show but will also win prizes of artists materials. Their creators will be invited to the shop for a presentation and will get their pictures in the paper too.

THE COMPETITION

Children up to ten are invited to enter one of three categories: Pre-school (4 and under), infants (5-7) and juniors (8-11).

Copies of a butterfly outline and entry coupons are available from the shop which is open every day between 9.30am and 4.30pm.

The closing date for entries is September 18.

Winners will be notified by telephone before September 20 and will be invited to a presentation at the shop on Monday, September 25.

BACKGROUND DETAILS

HOPE House Hospice, based near Oswestry, cares for terminally ill children and gives support to their families from Cheshire, Shropshire, North and Mid Wales.

Running costs amount to around £1million a year but less than five per cent of this comes from the NHS. The rest is donated by the general public!

To mark the millennium a Hope for the Future campaign was launched in a bid to ensure dependable funding.

To find our more about the Hope for the Future campaign, your local support group or other ways of helping contact The Appeals Office, Hope House, Nant Lane, Morda, Nr Oswestry, SY10 9BX Phone 01691 671671.

BUTTERFLY MORNING

THE Nantwich Hope House shop in High Street will be holding a Butterfly Coffee Morning on Thursday, September 28.

The borough mayor has been invited and organisers are hoping to do a roaring trade.

PARENTS PAY TRIBUTE TO CARE GIVEN BY HOSPICE

NEXT week the GUARDIAN will be highlighting a local family's experiences of Hope House care and support.

Here are a few comments from other parents who have been helped:

"It's so peaceful here. I can really relax without worrying about him. I know if anything happens to him while we're here, the care team will help us through."

"When it was first suggested we should contact Hope House I was very reluctant. I had this image of rows of beds with lots of sick children. But it's not like this at all. It's a wonderful, bright place."

"Just to know that Hope House is there in its peaceful surroundings, with its wonderful facilities and, most importantly, its caring and understanding staff, gives us all the strength we need to go on."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.