About Sobell House Hospice Charity

The hospice is committed to providing the best possible care to all those with life-limiting illnesses and their families in and around Oxfordshire.

Patients with terminal illness often need more care than those whose illness is curable or chronic. They can often feel vulnerable and disadvantaged and they often have complex problems that require a great amount of care in terms of pain and symptom control. A great deal of sensitivity is required to respond to their feelings, uncertainties, hopes and fears.

Its expertise and skills in pain management have increased over the years through experience, study and research to relieve as much pain and distress as possible from patients. The hospice has endeavoured to meet the spiritual pain that accompanies life-limiting illness through chaplaincy work and complementary therapies such as music and art.

During the course of a typical year the hospice is involved with approximately 3,000 home care visits, 500 in-patient admissions and 3,000 day-centre visits. The Bereavement Service also supports around 400 families.

Activities at the Charity include fundraising events to support the work of Sir Michael Sobell House Hospice and have included general and seasonal fundraising events, six charity shops and the Sobell Lottery, which has a weekly membership of over 5000, in addition to externally-driven events held by the local public. The charity also raises funds for the work of the hospice through donations, legacies and grants from UK trusts.

Our history

Sir Michael Sobell House was built in 1975 as the result of a personal donation from Sir Michael Sobell, a public appeal and a contribution from the Department of Health to respond to the need for a hospice in Oxfordshire.

The unit opened with 12 beds and was the second palliative care unit to be built in conjunction with the National Society for Cancer Relief (now called Macmillan Cancer Relief). In 1978, a further eight in-patient beds were opened and day care was introduced.

Sobell House Hospice Charity was set up to provide continued support and funding for the hospice. It was felt that the hospice should be viewed as a community asset and that it would only remain so if the local community continued to support it, both by providing volunteers to work alongside professional staff and by raising money. Sobell House Hospice Charity therefore became a bridge between the hospice and the community. 

Sobell House Hospice Charity provides essential voluntary income to the hospice to fund vital resources, which provide the intensive level of personal care and support to those in need within the Oxford region.

This currently equates to 40 per cent of the hospice’s total revenue costs, 60 per cent being provided by the NHS, although there is an ever-increasing emphasis being placed on voluntary income.

Sobell House Hospice Charity has also been instrumental in the hospice redevelopment project by raising the required £3.7m for a new hospice building through its ‘Raise the Roof Campaign’, brought about by the changing needs of patients and their families. The new hospice is due to be opened in early summer 2003 and will provide improved facilities and enhanced comfort for all those within the hospice’s care.

A brief history of the hospice:

1975 – opening of the 12-bed hospice.
1977 – first home care nurse was appointed & 2 weekly out-patient clinics were established.
1978 – further 8 in-patient beds were opened. Day Care was introduced in part of the in-patient unit two days a week.
1979 – Lymphoedema Service commenced.
1984 – Purpose-built Day Centre was opened.
1985 – Bereavement Support Service started.
1987 – the hospice building was extended to provide a Study Centre.
1988 – Sobell House became the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Palliative Cancer Care.
1992 – Music Therapy was established.
1996 – Art Therapy was established.
1998 – Bereaved children project began providing grief support for children and young people in Oxfordshire. ‘SeeSaw’ became an independent charity in 2000. A full-time chaplain was also appointed.
1999 – An outreach Day Centre in Witney was opened.
2000 – Plans begun to rebuild a new hospice and Sobell House Hospice Charity launched its capital appeal to raise £3.7m to fund the redevelopment.
Jan 2003 – New in-patient unit opened in the new hospice building.
Early summer 2003 – Official opening of new hospice building.