Forget Me Not centre provides family support

Work to create a centre that provides family support through grief and bereavement has been completed at a Lancashire hospice. 

The new ‘Forget Me Not’ centre at St John’s Hospice in Lancaster has been designed by architecture, design and masterplanning practice Frank Whittle Partnership (FWP). 

The specialist centre in the grounds of the hospice will be a place that offers whole family support: the most effective type of therapy that was previously not available free of charge in the area.

St John’s Hospice has been providing palliative care for a wide range of life shortening conditions in North Lancashire, the South Lakes and parts of North Yorkshire since 1986. 

FWP was commissioned to deliver a place that would offer a safe, warm and welcoming environment for families and individuals to have support in a space away from home and the main hospice building. Wyre-based Huck Construction carried out the building work. 

A ‘lodge’ building on Slyne Road was removed to make way for the modern, purpose-built, facility with striking larch cladding. 

The new centre has quiet rooms, breakout spaces, open spaces for group and family activities, mixed-use areas, a kitchen and offices. 

Two special gardens are also part of the centre, including a sensory garden providing reflective spaces where young children and teenagers can be immersed in the scents, textures and colours of plants and related elements.