Bob and Berts has announced Northern Ireland’s Children’s Hospice as its charity of the year with funds raised assisting to provide end of life care, care at home, and respite care to children suffering from serious illnesses, and their families.

To launch the partnership, Bob and Berts will be selling a limited-edition range of Easter chocolate brownies on Good Friday (Friday 19th April) with all proceeds going directly to Northern Ireland’s Children’s Hospice.

Colin McClean, who founded the first Bob and Berts outlet in Portstewart in 2013, said:

“At Bob and Berts we are always keen to engage with initiatives that impact the lives of local people, particularly young people.

“With 16 stores across Northern Ireland, we believe our employees and customers can play a huge role in supporting the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice which cares for over 300 life-limited infants, children and young people from our community every year.

“We will be raising much needed funds throughout the year through staff activities and challenges, but also with special events and limited-edition menu items in store where our customers can get involved.

“We have developed a limited-edition Easter creamy chocolate egg brownie which will be available in all our stores on Good Friday with 100% of the proceeds going to the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.

“This is a great way to launch our partnership and we hope to see lots of our regular, and new customers, in store on Good Friday to play their part in supporting Northern Ireland’s only dedicated palliative care service for children.”

Since 1996, the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice has been the only organisation that can offer high level support to life limited children with complex needs requiring 24 hour specialist care.

It costs almost £4m every year for the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice to provide its much-needed services to young people and their families.

Horizon House in Newtownabbey is the purpose-built Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice facility with ten fully accessible bedrooms, an open plan living and dining room, a soft playroom, a multi-sensory room, a den, an art room, a quiet room and a hydrotherapy pool.

Sheila Duffy, Head of Fundraising at Northern Ireland Hospice, said:

“All funds donated to Northern Ireland Hospice stay in Northern Ireland and help local families in need, so having the support from a local company such as Bob and Berts is fantastic.

“The services provided by the Children’s Hospice are vast and include respite and end of life care at the Hospice, symptom management, care at home and bereavement support.

“Whether young people and their families are staying at the Hospice or taking part in some of the daily activities, their needs are fully attended to by our nursing staff allowing quality time to be spent together.

“We’re thrilled to have Bob and Berts on board and look forward to working with Colin, the team and their customers throughout the year to raise funds that will provide superior care to children battling serious illnesses and their families.”

To purchase a brownie and support the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice, please visit any of the Bob and Berts stores across Northern Ireland on Good Friday.

Stores are located in Ballymena, Ballymoney, Bangor, Belfast (Stranmillis Road / Fountain Street / Lisburn Road), Coleraine, Cookstown, Dungannon, Limavady, Lisburn, Newtownards, Portadown, Portrush, Portstewart and Omagh. A new store will be opening in Magherafelt later this year.

Donations can also be made to the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice online by visiting: www.nihospice.org/donate

Full information about the range of services provided by the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice can be found at www.nihospice.org/childrens-hospice