The Julius Jones Trust – a UK charity dedicated to raising vital funds to support NHS services – yesterday presented Dame Mary Archer, Co-Chair of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital Fundraising Campaign, with a donation of £10m.
The generous gift will be used to help fund Cambridge Children’s Hospital, the East of England’s first specialist children’s hospital and the first hospital in the world designed to truly provide mental and physical health care together.
Dame Mary Archer, Co-Chair of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital Fundraising Campaign said: “We are hugely grateful to The Julius Jones Trust for this incredible philanthropy. The Trust joins a deeply committed community of donors who have come on board during the early stages of this project to help make Cambridge Children’s Hospital a reality. We look forward to working with the Julius Jones Trust and our other supporters as we continue towards our goal of raising £100m for this much-needed hospital.”
Bradley Jones founded The Julius Jones Trust after his young son was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. “Our mission at the trust is to fund mental health and wellbeing services in the NHS for children, young people and families dealing with life changing diagnoses,” he said. “The Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be the first in the UK to provide this kind of integrated physical and mental healthcare, and so we are honoured that it is the first recipient of a £10m gift from the trust.”
The donation will support spaces in the hospital, including family wellbeing rooms -multipurpose spaces away from clinical areas where families can spend quality time together during long hospital stays - and a central information hub that will provide vital support information for patients and their families.
It comes just weeks after the Hospital’s Outline Business Case was approved in principle by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. The approval, which is subject to a review of the project’s capital funding in April 2024, means that pre-construction works can begin on the site of the new hospital, opposite the Rosie Maternity Hospital on Robinson Way, Cambridge, early next year.
Professor Isobel Heyman (MBE), children’s mental health clinical lead for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, recently gave evidence on mental healthcare for young people to the Times Health Commission.
She said: “Our vision for Cambridge Children’s Hospital is to look at everything a child needs, not just their illness. An illness doesn’t just affect a child, but everyone around them too — their parents, siblings, family and friends. We are so delighted that The Julius Jones Trust shares our passion and our vision.
“The East of England is the only region without a specialist children’s hospital. And with increasing numbers of children and young people experiencing mental health problems, we urgently need a new type of care, delivered by staff who are trained in both mental and physical health care.”
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be a national exemplar, delivering a revolutionary model of healthcare and game-changing advances in life sciences research. With an embedded research institute focusing on early detection and preventative medicine, Cambridge Children’s Hospital will detect disease early or prevent it altogether, personalise health care and deliver it closer to home for children and young people across the East of England.
The Project will now start work on the next stage of the business case, the Full Business Case.
The Cambridge Children’s Hospital fundraising Campaign is a partnership between Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, Head to Toe Charity and the University of Cambridge. The Campaign will continue to work with donors, with plans to launch the community phase of the Campaign next year, to make this much-needed regional facility a reality.
