An exciting year ahead for Martin House

The coming year is set to be an exciting time for Martin House. Since autumn 2023, we’ve been undergoing our biggest transformation since we first opened our doors nearly 40 years ago.

We have already built and opened our new children’s wing, which has offered improved facilities, like ensuite accessible bathrooms and piped oxygen to beds, helping us deliver high quality care to children and young people with life-shortening conditions in the best possible surroundings.

The new wing has also given us valuable new space – so rooms and corridors are bigger, allowing room for the complex equipment and wheelchairs many children in our care now need. But it’s also provided enhanced facilities, like a new playroom and art room, plus private space for families, and hotel standard parent and family bedrooms, guaranteeing them the good night’s sleep they so often rely on during a stay at Martin House.

More space, better facilities, greater independence

In the coming months, the final part of this major transformation will be complete. This will see our teenage wing completely refurbished and extended, giving teenagers and young adults their own bespoke space and improved facilities that offers more independence – plus a Love Island style courtyard at their own request!

When the building work is finished, we will have a host of new services and facilities – our new hydrotherapy pool, multi-sensory room, wellbeing suite and education centre. This will allow us to offer new experiences to families and enhance the holistic care we provide, which is so important to hospice care – as well as the vital specialist medical and nursing support we deliver, our care is also focused on the emotional and psychological well being of both child and family.

Our education centre will allow us to build on the work we are already doing, providing space for us to deliver more specialist training to healthcare and allied professionals across our region and beyond, ensuring that more children and young people get the palliative care they need, when and where they need it.

A landmark transformation for Martin House

While all this work has been going on, I’m so proud that we’ve maintained our care throughout, always offering support 24/7, 365 days a year, ensuring families always have somewhere to turn when they need it the most.

It’s been a huge journey, with challenges along the way, and 2026 is the year we will see the reward of all the hard work that has gone into making this transformation, and our ambition, a reality. We’re looking forward to welcoming families to the new Martin House when the whole building is fully opened, with all the modern facilities we need to deliver the high-quality, specialist care children and young people with life-shortening conditions need. And we’re also looking forward to celebrating this huge achievement, with families, with our staff who have worked so tirelessly, and with the many generous supporters in our region who have helped to make this a reality.

The best part though is knowing that 2026 sees the start of a new era for Martin House. An era knowing we have the facilities – and the amazing expertise of our team – to ensure that children and young people with complex, life-shortening conditions will be able to come to the hospice for another 40 years and receive the care and comfort they need in a building that has everything they deserve.

We couldn’t deliver this service to hundreds of families across West, North and East Yorkshire without you.

Clair Holdsworth, chief executive