They were helping to fund the charity’s Bagpuss Children’s Wing in Brasov, Romania, which cares for 150 children living with life-limiting or terminal illness. It was opened in 2002 thanks to the generosity of Bagpuss creator Oliver Postgate, doyen of children’s TV and a supporter of Hospices of Hope.
The charity was founded by Tunbridge Wells resident Graham Perolls after he visited a cancer hospital in the east European country in the late 1980s.
It now offers hospice services in Romania, Albania, Serbia and Moldova, and is looking to expand those services into other countries in the region.
Hospices of Hope has helped more than 40,000 patients and trained more than 20,000 healthcare professionals in hospice care techniques.
Luke Sedge, who ran as Bagpuss, was diagnosed with bowel cancer at 42. He said: “It shook my family to the core. Last year was a constant round of treatments and appointments. But all these were given to me and I did not have to ask once.
“Without our NHS and the cancer charities in this country I would be living a very different life. I ran as Bagpuss to give children in countries where services are limited or unavailable the same chance, somewhere to feel loved and supported, somewhere to get help, somewhere that gives them hope.”
For more information, visit hospicesofhope.co.uk
