Charity funds children's palliative care in Birmingham

Birmingham Children's Hospital is to become a training hospital for paediatric palliative medicine, a move welcomed by medics and the charity behind the project

A charity has donated £310,000 to fund new consultants at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

The site will become a training hospital in paediatric palliative medicine following the creation of the new roles, funded by Molly Ollys.

The donation covers two years of training and double the number of existing roles.

Based in Warwick, the charity supports children with life-threatening illnesses.

Nationwide there is a shortage of up to 60 consultants in the field of paediatric palliative medicine, the charity says.

Yifan Liang is first consultant in paediatric medicine in the West Midlands to be fully funded by the NHS, the charity has said

The funding has been welcomed by the hospital's current consultants Christine Mott and Yifan Liang, the latter of whom said: "With the current consultant numbers, we are only capturing the most needy children and there's a lot more need that we could be addressing.

"This vital business funding will enable us to provide the capacity to serve families better through planning, clinical reviews and which will be more sustainable for everyone concerned."

Molly Ollys was set up following the death of Rachel and Tim Ollerenshaw's eight-year-old daughter Molly from a rare kidney cancer. It marked its tenth anniversary last year.

The charity was set up in memory of Molly Ollerenshaw who was treated for five years at Birmingham Children's Hospital

Mrs Ollerenshaw said: "From our own experiences with Molly we realised the importance of enabling a good death. Molly had a choice, as parents and her family we had a choice, thanks to the support of a consultant in Warwickshire where we live.

"However, we realised that that care was different down the road in the West Midlands."

Mrs Ollerenshaw said the charity had sought to expand where children could receive care