TSG supports Heart Unit’s Home from Home.

A new £1.9m family accommodation facility at the Children’s Heart Unit of Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, supported by Technology Services Group (TSG), was officially opened on Friday.

Patrons of the Children’s Heart Unit Fund (CHUF) Ant & Dec, and fellow local hero Alan Shearer were on hand to unveil Scott House, a new Home from Home for the children receiving lifesaving treatment at the unit and their families.

The project, a result of fundraising by The Sick Children’s Trust and CHUF will benefit families with some of the country’s most seriously ill children.

IT solutions specialists TSG were amongst a group of local organisations who pledged financial support to sponsor a room at the facility which will allow parents to remain close to their children while they undergo lifesaving surgery.

The Freeman Hospital’s Children’s Heart Unit is one of only two Transplant Centres in the UK offering pioneering and innovative treatment to children requiring heart surgery. Families need access to the centre’s services from all over the UK often having to travel long distances, so the Home from Home will enable families to stay, free of charge right by their child’s bedside.

For TSG founder, and major CHUF benefactor Graham Wylie the opening of the facility was warmly received following his own experiences with the hospital’s Heart Unit. Wylie said “When my twin daughters were born one of them needed complex heart surgery almost immediately. The staff here were brilliant and thankfully we’ve not had to look back since.

“We lived in Hexham at the time, but still wanted to be at our daughter’s side each day. So this Home from Home is the perfect solution for families from all over the UK who can now not worry about being far away from their children when they will be needed the most.”

Mark Joynson, TSG’s Managing Director for the North added “We are immensely proud to be able to support such a fantastic cause. The facilities here at Scott House will prove invaluable to the families who need them most and this will make such a difference.”