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The founder of a hospice charity providing care to babies and children across the West of England has died.

Eddie Farwell co-founded Children's Hospice South West (CHSW) with his late wife Jill in 1991 from the laundry room of their house in North Devon to support families whose children have life-limiting conditions.

The couple's two eldest children, Katie and Tom, had both been diagnosed with a rare degenerative genetic disorder that meant they did not live to reach adulthood.

At the time, the family’s only opportunity for respite was a hospice in Oxford, so the duo launched a £1m fundraising appeal to set up their own in Barnstaple in 1995.

Huge demand for its services led to an appeal to build Charlton Farm, near Bristol, which opened in 2007 and was followed by Little Harbour in St Austell in 2011.

Mr Farwell was awarded an MBE for his services to charity and children’s palliative care in 2014. He announced his retirement as the charity's chief executive last year, but was diagnosed with motor neurone disease just a few months later. He died of the neurological disorder on Thursday, March 27.

He is survived by his daughter Lizzy.

She said: "“My Dad was a kind, thoughtful, brave person always and being able to watch what he had achieved both through Children's Hospice South West and sharing wonderful moments as dad and daughter I will never forget.