Family Stories

Twenty-nine-year old Tom Martin lives in Cardiff and was first referred to Tŷ Hafan in 2002 at the age of nine. An avid Cardiff City fan, a member of the Welsh National Boccia Squad and BC4 Welsh National Champion, Tom...

Fourteen-year old Cardiff schoolboy Seth Burke has been using Tŷ Hafan for the past six years. The St Cyres pupil was born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive condition, which means that his muscles are not as strong as those...

Andrew and Catherine Jeans lost their beloved daughter, Rose, to Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour just days after her first birthday. This is their family’s story. “Our daughter, Rose, was born on 11th February 2019. She was perfect and a much longed...

“I’m Micaela, mum of two sons – Cai, who passed away at Tŷ Hafan earlier this year and his younger brothers Harrison and Nico. “So much has happened in my life with Cai. When he was little he was diagnosed...

“Until autumn 2017, Thomas was a normal eight-year-old boy,” says dad James Meacham, from Blackwood. “He was very fit, he studied karate, he was intelligent, a keen reader of David Walliams and Harry Potter, a total Star Wars geek and...

“My middle child, Darcy, was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome,” says father of three Matt Evans. “This means she has developmental delay. Darcy is five but is the size of an 18-month-old child. She was born with a cleft lip and...

“Alice is our firstborn but midway through my pregnancy with her my husband, Ian, and I were told something wasn’t quite right,” says mum Hannah Hicks, from Cardiff. “The scan at 20 weeks picked up some issues, and weeks later,...

Gethin Channon is three and a half and the adored son of Siân and Rob, and beloved little brother to eight-year-old Ffion. The family live in Swansea and have been using Tŷ Hafan children’s hospice for three years after a...

The Global Disability Summit event, sponsored by the Charity Include Me Too, the Commonwealth Children & Young People Disability Network and the Group Network of Young Persons with Disabilities, brought together young people from across the world to discuss their...

  Ahead of Children’s Hospice Week, we caught up with them again last month to see how their lives have progressed. “We moved into our home in Usk just over a year ago to be near family,” says Khloe. “Since...

International Nurses Day is an international day observed around the world on 12 May each year, to mark the contributions that nurses make to society. Tŷ Hafan’s 80-strong care team includes specialist palliative care nurses, healthcare support assistants, complementary therapists,...