A new hospice will provide a home for children with life-limiting illnesses and offer a much-needed break for parents.

When the Chestnut Tree House hospice opens its doors next year it will have a kind and welcoming atmosphere and be full of fun, noise, activity and laughter.

It will be a home-from-home for up to 400 families across East and West Sussex.

There will be no staff uniforms, badges, door numbers or wards and there will be few rules.

The hospice will support children and young adults who are expected to die before the age of 19.

Staff at the children's hospice are chosen for their personal qualities and qualifications.

The prime purpose is to provide supportive respite care and staff will do everything they can to replicate the care given to the child at home.

Parents can continue to provide all the care for their child at the hospice or opt in and out as they wish.

There are hundreds of children in Sussex with a wide range of life-limiting illnesses such as muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, multiple disabilities, cancer and progressive genetic disorders.

Parents have had to travel to hospices in Hampshire, Kent and Surrey to get the respite care and support.

The Brighton Lions set up its Leo House appeal in 1999 with the aim of building a children's hospice in Brighton and Hove.

The campaign for the Chestnut Tree house was launched in 1998 by St Barnabas Hospice in Worthing and immediately caught the attention of the community.

So far, £2.2 million has been raised through events and donations.

St Barnabas has set aside £1.5 million in reserves, which leaves fund-raisers with £1.3 million to raise between now and next spring.

Hospice marketing manager Lin Roworth-Stokes said: "It has been wonderful how people have got behind the hospice and come up with so many ways of fund-raising."

The hospice is being built on land off Dover Lane, near Angmering, on land donated by Lady Sarah Clutton, who is President of St Barnabas Hospice.

She has given the hospice a 125-year lease and will only be charging a peppercorn rent.

Lady Sarah said: "I suggested to the team looking for a site for the hospice I might be able to help them."

The site was chosen as it was the most suitable in size, layout and location.

It was felt important for families to have access to the countryside but at the same time the site is accessible from all parts of Sussex.

Builders were conscious of not creating an adverse impact on the countryside and the building has been designed in keeping with the area.

The hospice will provide a safe haven to care for the whole family and provide a place open 24 hours a day for help and advice, both medical and emotional.

Facilities will include multi-sensory rooms, a hydrotherapy room, wet and dry play areas, TV and games club room, computer room and music room.

A chapel for any faith or none will be available, along with a bereavement suite.

Outside the main building there are plans to landscape the grounds and set up a multi-sensory garden.

There will be six children's bedrooms, one for emergency care, and four teenager/young adult rooms.

For the family there will be six double and two single bedrooms.

The Chestnut Tree House team has been busy for the last year, after launching a service offering care and support at home.

Based at St Barnabas Hospice, it will transfer to the new children's hospice next year.

For more details about the new children's hospice and how to help, contact the fund-raising office on 01903 265824.

Alternatively, donations can be sent to the Chestnut Tree House Appeal, St Barnabas Hospice, Columbia Drive, Worthing, BN13 2QF.