New GB hospital accommodation for Scilly patients

Accommodation to patients from the Isles of Scilly who need medical treatment on mainland Britain is set to open.

The Island Haven, founded five years ago, planned the idea to create the home-from-home accommodation for patients and their families travelling to Cornwall for treatment.

The charitable organisation said patients often faced logistical and financial difficulties when needing hospital care in Truro because of the islands' remote location - especially if discharged late at night or needing regular treatments such as chemotherapy.

Chair Tim Guthrie said it was important to have somewhere close to stay and for recovering patients to have their "nearest and dearest" with them.

He said: "It's not only for the islanders but the visitors - the same problems occur to them if they're taken ill.

"We've already got bookings coming in, so we already know the need and that's a great thing."

The Haven, set to open on Saturday 14 June, is due to provide four bedrooms in its first phase.

Mr Guthrie said planning permission had already been submitted for a fifth room.

He said: "It'll need to be expanded - what we have is not enough to cover the need.

"We will have that need for having a good financial bolster to assist people who really can't afford to come for a long period of medical need."

Lisa Farrington-Martin is set to stay at the accommodation in the coming weeks after planned major surgery in Truro.

She said staying at a hotel would have cost too much for her and her husband during recovery.

She said: "We got in touch with the Island Haven and the relief that I felt as soon as they said we could stay a couple of days before and a few days afterwards, I could've cried. I was that relieved.

"The levels of stress... have completely gone because of a result of it."

Ms Farrington-Martin said lower cost accommodation was "an absolute game-changer".

"It was a choice of me having to go over on my own to have major surgery and try and come back on my own or being able to have my husband with me," she said.

One child, Orkney, has helped raise about £2,000 to fund the charity's accommodation by running 55km (34 miles) in five days, and a half-marathon.

Mum Samaya had to spend time on the mainland after giving birth to Orkney and was discharged during winter with no flights back home.

She said: "You just don't think about those extra costs when you live here. You don't plan to be flown off and have to stay in a hotel.

"We hadn't lived here that long and that was quite a shock... It's quite a lot to have to think about those extra things."

Following the birth of another child and medical complications, Samaya and her family had to stay in a holiday home for a month in Cornwall.

"If Island Haven had been there at that time, it would have meant they were close by to me and would have been able to visit me more easily, and it's just that one less thing to worry about," she said.

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