VISITORS glimpsed the care given to children and young adults with life-shortening illnesses at a hospice open day on Saturday.

Helen and Douglas House, in East Oxford, opened its doors to the public to see some of the 400 volunteers who help keep the hospice open through fundraising.

On display were the centre’s lovingly tended gardens and specialist facilities – built to let guests enjoy the highest possible quality of life – as well as a visiting Brawn F1 racing car and a Dalek.

Regular visitor James Lewis, 22, from Farmoor, who was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy when he was 15, said the hospice gave him activities to take part in and a place to make new friends. Wheelchair-bound James also volunteers for the charity, helping manage its fundraising databases.

His mum Lynn Lewis, 51, said: “I don’t know what we’d do without it. It’s our lifeline. There’s nobody else we can leave James with, and everything he needs is here.”