It is Children's Hospice Week and a local hospice charity is celebrating the event by paying their annual rent of a dozen roses.

Naomi's House and Jacksplace offers support to life limited and life threatened children and their families across Dorset and other areas of the south west.

When the charity was first looking for a premises to build their hospice on, in the years leading up to its opening in 1997, it was given permission to build a hospice on land owned by Mary Cornelius-Reid in Hampshire. In return she asked that the hospice be named after her youngest daughter, Naomi, and that each Midsummer's Day, the hospice pays a peppercorn rent of a dozen red roses.

This year, Midsummer's Day, Wednesday June 24, falls within Children's Hospice Week which is thought to be the first time that has ever happened. That makes this year's event extra special.

Keith Wilson, head of marketing for Naomi's House and Jacksplace, said: "Ordinarily we would all be going to the hospice and taking photos and videos of the children and we can't do that this year because of coronavirus.

"The hospice is still in use and we do have children staying with us so our play team have come up with lots of activities for them to do during Children's Hospice Week."

The charity had to modify its services at the beginning of lockdown and is beginning to make plans to welcome more children back to the hospice.

Mr Wilson said: "When the lockdown happened we had to do something that was unthinkable which was to stop caring for children as we had to stop our respite service. Now the next step on our journey is to start rescheduling respite stays for families so they can bring their child to us and take a much needed break.

"These families are basically nurses and carers 24 hours a day who have had so little support through the crisis. We are delighted to be able to open up to respite again and help families."

The impact of the pandemic has been felt by all charities as fundraising has ground to a halt for many of them. Naomi's House and Jacksplace have also felt the pinch of funding drying up and are hoping that, as lockdown restrictions are eased, things will start to get back to normal.

Mr Wilson said: "We have been here through the pandemic supporting families across Dorset and Wessex. Now we need support more than ever to make sure that we remain a resilient charity providing an exemplary service for families that need it most.

"We have virtual walks, live music gigs on our social media channels, virtual gift cards and loads of other ways that people can support us. We have already seen a really positive response from the community and it has been so lovely."