Unusual donation makes dreams come true for children being helped by Lancaster hospice

Keen crafters Val Hall and Freda Simpson have donated a bespoke dolls’ house to the Forget Me Not Centre at St John’s Hospice, in memory of their neighbour Joan Howorth.

Joan had always wanted a doll’s house and when her son made one for her, she did not get the chance to decorate it. She gave it to Val and Freda to ‘do-it-up’ and then donate to charity, and they’ve done a beautiful job in shades of the Forget Me Not Centre’s yellow and blue.

Dolls’ houses help children to play imaginatively, develop social skills and make sense of the world – all things that can be especially difficult for children who have experienced a bereavement of someone close to them at a young age.