Latest news with #RachelHouse
BBC News
4 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Kinross children's hospice Rachel House set for £17m revamp
Kinross children's hospice Rachel House is set for a £17m revamp, thirty years after it hospice, which was the first of its kind in Scotland, is one of two run by Children's Hospices Across Scotland (Chas). The redesign will include an additional hydrotherapy pool, better-equipped bedrooms and fully accessible adventure work is due to start next year with the full project set for completion in 2027, subject to approval from Perth and Kinross Council. Rachel House was built in 1996 at a cost of £10m and opened by HRH The Princess supported just under 100 children a year in the 1990s, but that number has more than doubled and continues to charity said that the redesign had "put children and families at the heart of the process" with their input key to the changes being Qusai Alhamdan, whose children Mo and Elaine have been supported by Rachel House since 2021, said the hospice was "very close to our hearts."The children both suffer from ataxia with oculomotor apraxia, which causes problems with movement, co-ordination and balance. Dr Alhamdan said: "As their condition is degenerative, making memories together as a family is very important to us and we have spent many wonderful respite visits at Rachel House over the last four years."My wife Esraa and I find our visits to the hospice very relaxing because we don't have to worry about our caring responsibilities as the lovely nurses and staff take over and do everything that is needed so we can just enjoy precious time together." Ken Lowndes' two daughters Jenny and Marion were two of the first children to be cared for in Rachel House when it opened. Born healthy normal babies with a two-year age gap, both Jenny and Marion were diagnosed with leukodystrophy when they were four years old. Before Rachel House opened, the family made regular 900-mile round trips from their home in Achiltibuie, north of Ullapool, to Martin House in West Lowndes said: "We helped to fundraise for Rachel House but we never knew if Jenny and Marion would get to visit, if they'd live to see it. "They did. They loved it, as did we all."Ensuring the next generation of families has the same standard of care that my family experienced is vital and the redesigned Rachel House will go on to make a huge difference to hundreds more Scottish families." Chas chief executive Rami Okasha said the charity wanted to transform end-of-life care for children and their families in said: "No one should face the death of their child alone and to be successful we are once again asking or donors to get on board and help raise the millions of pounds that will make a difference every day for families dealing with the unimaginable reality of loving and caring for a child who will die young."
Buzz Feed
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Celebrities Share Favorite Foods
To celebrate APAHM, we sat down with nine Pacific Islander celebs to chat about their careers and cultures for BuzzFeed's Voices of the Pacific series. Naturally, we had to ask about their favorite food from their culture! Here's what they had to say: Luciane Buchanan (Tongan) "Oh my god, I'm really missing Tongan food right now. My family are constantly like, 'Oh, we're at this function,' and sending me photos. Ota ika [raw fish in coconut cream] is amazing. I love it. I'm in Mexico City right now, so I'm just eating ceviche, like, 'It's almost the same.' I love tapioca. I love lu sipi [lamb, onion, and coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves]. It's funny, I was vegan for two years [laughs] my family would make me a vegan version. But now I'm back to eating meat, I'm fully back into that. My auntie makes this amazing Fijian curry. It's bomb. It's my favorite." Rachel House (Māori) "Green pāua [abalone] and kina [sea urchin]. Equal. I didn't like kina that much when I was growing up, and then in the last 20 years, it's become an obsession." Drew Afualo (Samoan) "Fa'i [green bananas]. I would say I'm a fa'i lover. Now, do I need all of the fixings with it? No, I like my fa'i plain, and I know that's so controversial; I don't care. Also palusami [coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves]. My two faves." Sasha Colby (Native Hawaiian) "My go-to traditional Hawaiian plate would be lau lau, kalua pig, some rice, lomi salmon, and I'm good. Ooh and some poi." Oscar Kightley (Samoan) "Well, this isn't actually Samoan [laughs] but growing up — do you get corned beef in the States? Pisupo? It's like a currency. My favorite growing up was pisupo and rice, pretty much anything with rice. I love it all. We have our own soul food. I love that concept of soul food because food is actually so important to us as well. But if I had to pick one, it would be oka, raw fish and coconut cream." Simone Kessell (Māori) "Well [laughs] when I go home, my whanau or my family say that I'm hopeless because I don't eat meat. So, a boil up, which is probably incredibly good for you because it is all the bones and the meat and the watercress, but it's not a food I eat. I do like fry bread, though. With lots of butter, fantastic." Alex Tarrant (Māori, Samoan, and Niuean) "Oh, man. For food, I love palusami. And if it's dessert — I don't even know if I can call it dessert — but panipopo [coconut buns]." Dinah Jane (Tongan) "It's hard to choose one thing. I was in Utah not too long ago, and I went to Pacific Seas, off of Redwood. That's the first thing I wanted when I landed, Tongan food. So I get there, and the first thing I say I want on my plate is lu sipi. It's like the Samoan palusami. Tongans, we like adding more, we're a little extra. Taro leaves, you have meat in there, you can have corned beef in there, or sipi, lamb, coconut milk and onions and all that." And finally, Uli Latukefu (Tongan) "Lu sipi, manioke, octopus/feke, I like all of it. If I could have it every Sunday, I would." You can read the full Voices of the Pacific interviews here.
