Sister Frances Dominica

Travellers Tales

It seems extraordinary now that before 1982 there was nowhere, other than hospital, for sick children with life-limiting illnesses to be cared for, or for their families to find the support and respite they so desperately needed.

But after befriending a family whose small daughter, Helen, needed round the clock care after surgery for a brain tumour, Frances recognised the need, and in the grounds of her Oxford convent, founded the world’s first children’s hospice Helen House, which began the global children’s hospice movement, for which she was the figurehead for the next 30 years.

Then in 2013, an allegation of historic abuse meant being barred from the place she’d founded and loved, and even now, several years after the case was dropped, she still isn’t allowed in.

She talks to me about that experience and how it’s led to her walking alongside others who’ve been falsely accused, as well as the story of her call to be a nun (which meant a painful falling out with her mother) the foundation of Helen House and how it’s possible to help families through the agonising experience of losing a child, what it feels like to be in a religious community for over 50 years, and how she now pours her considerable energies into working with the homeless community in Oxford.

I hope you enjoy meeting Sister Frances Dominica as much as I did, on Travellers’ Tales, here on Premier Christian Radio.