Butterfly Children’s Hospices (BCH) started life as a dream to help orphaned and abandoned children in China.

Over the course of its history, the charity has attracted trustees and partners around the world who have been inspired by our vision -

To promote excellence in children’s palliative and hospice care in China through leadership, collaboration, advocacy, and education.

“When I was about 8 years old my Mother took me to see the film ‘The Inn of the 6th Happiness’.  The heroine of this real-life-story film was Gladys Aylward, she inspired me and I left the cinema thinking, “One day I’ll go to China and look after children.” 

“I started working in Chinese orphanages in 1994, voluntarily, for 3 weeks of every year.  I saw first-hand what children desperately needed and the lack of resources available to care for them. 

“In 2004 I took early retirement from my 40-year nursing and management career in the UK’s National Health Service to dedicate my life to helping abandoned, dying and very sick children in China.” 

- Lyn Gould, Ex-CEO and co-founder

Alan and Lyn lived in China from 2006 until 2013.  They co-founded the charity in 2006 and opened the first Butterfly Home in 2010.

Today our aim is to become the beacon of palliative care services for children in China. 

We are creating sustainable models of palliative care that can be extended to different communities as well as working on consultancy and education, and developing training.