Edward Farwell MBE

Honorary graduates 2015-16

Edward Farwell MBE (LLD)

Saturday 23 January 2016 9:00am

Eddie Farwell has lived in the South West for almost his entire life. He was brought up in Yeovil and studied at Exeter for his B.Phil in Social Work and the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work. From 1977-2005 he worked for Devon County Council.

Eddie’s life sadly changed forever in 1983 when his eldest two children Katie (d. 1991) and Tom (d. 1998) were diagnosed with a genetically derived illness which meant that they would die in childhood.

Inspired by the care his family had received over many years at Helen House, the world’s first children’s hospice, in Oxford, Eddie and his late wife Jill decided, without any prior knowledge of fundraising, to bring the world-class care they had received, to their beloved South West Peninsula.

They founded Children’s Hospice South West in 1991. Little Bridge House, the region’s first children’s hospice, opened in North Devon in 1995. During the Appeal for their second Hospice, Jill died of cancer (2004). Driven by his passion to relieve the suffering of families with life-limited children, and through the generosity of thousands of people in the region, Eddie went on to open Charlton Farm near Bristol (2007) and Little Harbour, Cornwall (2011). He continues to be the Charity’s CEO and remains the only person to have founded three hospices.

Eddie was awarded the MBE for services to children’s palliative care in the New Year’s Honours List in 2015.