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It’s Children’s Hospice Week 2026 and this year’s theme is a ‘journey to precious memories’. To celebrate, we wanted to share Andy’s Children’s Hospice Services recent journey in establishing a new music therapy post with our support, and the story of one family who created precious memories through music therapy sessions. In 2025-2026, 125 sessions were funded for 33 children and young people and their family members. One young person whose life was transformed by the sessions is Louise.
Louise is 14 years old and has had a profound response to music throughout her life. She lives with a range of complex medical conditions, including epilepsy, global development delay, cerebral palsy and being registered blind. Music therapy empowers and enables Louise to engage with the world around her, especially when other forms of interaction can be challenging for her to access. Louise listened with complete focus and used her voice with purpose and musical intent during her sessions. Throughout her musical interactions, she vocalised with a definite sense of excitement and delight.
Louise’s dad has shared the following when witnessing her engagement in music therapy:
“Her physical body has endured so much pain over so many years and her cerebral palsy means her use of her limbs severely restricted or non-existent but all of the above goes out of the window when you witness her participation in music therapy sessions. As you enter the room you see our daughter raising her left arm (that is hardly ever used) and plucking the strings to an instrument or searching to feel the vibrations coming from it and witness the pure joy on her face and in her voice as she is in that moment. She laughs, she giggles and as a father who for years has watched her go through so many operations and so much pain, to see her actually enjoy her life so much in these sessions is truly amazing. To watch her engage, to see her share such moments precious elevating and profound moments , brings joy to my heart and music is the only thing that can do this.”
The music therapy sessions are now embedded into practice within the hospice and will continue to offer life-changing moments such as these to children and young people with life-limiting conditions.
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