TWENTY-five years ago children's hospice Helen House opened its doors for the first time - becoming the first such establishment in the whole world.

The pioneering hospice, in Leopold Street, Oxford, has been holding a year of events to mark its anniversary.

The anniversary of its first opening its doors, however, was marked privately and quietly by those associated with the charity.

Sister Frances Dominica, the driving force behind the hospice, started the organisation after befriending the family of a little girl named Helen who was terminally ill.

Sister Frances cared for Helen at the All Saints Sisters of the Poor convent in Magdalen Road to provide respite for her family - and soon realised many other families could benefit from the same safety net, launching a fund-raising campaign for what was to become Helen House.

Frances Reid and Theresa Kent were two of the first parents to benefit from the work of Helen House.

Mrs Reid, 58, of Appleford, took her son Richard, who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, there for respite care in the first year it opened, starting a life-long relationship with the hospice.

She said: "At that stage he was ten and was just going into a wheelchair. We loved him to bits and would do anything for him, but it was so tiring.

"Because we lived so locally we never needed to stay in Helen House ourselves so we would take him up and drop him off. He just liked being there."

Richard, who was a pupil at Larkmead School, Abingdon and had been planning to go to Oxford Brookes University, visited many times until he died at Helen House aged 18.

Mrs Reid said: "He had a wonderful time there and it was just a wonderful family place. It was so friendly and happy.

"They never prejudged us. They would talk to us and learn from us what Richard was like and how he liked to be handled.

"They were always there for us and it meant that we could have some other normal life and just relax."

Richard had a healthy sister, Annabelle, who was six years his junior and Mrs Reid said the care Helen House provided meant her and her husband Lionel could spend more time with her.

So touched was Mrs Reid by the care, love and support Helen House provided for the family, she applied to volunteer at the first Helen House shop when it opened four years ago.

She was offered the position of manager, and still runs the shop in Oxford's Covered Market.

She said: "They have given so much to us unflinchingly. They have never questioned anything and just helped us.

"I felt I wanted to repay them somehow. This was a way to raise money and help others."

Theresa Kent, of Milton, lost two daughters to Werdnig Hoffman Spinal Muscular Atrophy, within a week of each other at the end of 1985.

The pair had been receiving care from Helen House - staying in adjoining rooms - since December 1981, just weeks after the hospice opened.

Ms Kent said: "When we first visited, Nicola was so impressed she wanted to stay immediately. Sister Frances said she could, and she was so keen I let her.

"Helen House gave me the opportunity for some respite. It was a blessing and a great relief."

She said Nicola in particular, who was 13 when she died, made many close friends at Helen House and would sometimes telephone from school to arrange a visit. She said: "The staff were fantastic and I felt confident leaving the girls there. I would not have got my annual break if it wasn't for Helen House which was crucial to me having some sort of normality in life. I have never stopped going there.

"I go to the bereaved parents' service every year, and after the girls died, Frances offered me a job in the bakery over the road. It helps to meet other people who have been through the same experiences."

Helen House and its counterpart Douglas House, which opened in 2004 to provide respite for young adults, are both small - with eight bedrooms in Helen House and seven in Douglas House. Both offer one-to-one round-the-clock care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions and their families.

While she has never been part of the nursing staff, Sister Frances has remained central to the whole operation.

She said: "In a way I think it is easier to be involved than to be an onlooker.

"I would rather be there beside them than watching from a distance.

"After 25 years I have fewer answers to the big questions than I ever had, but I believe it is important to walk the walk with people, and journey with them through their ups and downs - as long as you are welcome.

"It has to be the right person at the right time, but hopefully someone here might be that person."