Brownscombe House: CHD Living celebrates forty years of care

Nestled among mature trees and landscaped grounds close to the historic town of Haslemere in Surrey, Brownscombe House was the first care home to be owned and operated by CHD Living, a family-run care provider with a growing portfolio of care homes and other care facilities and services across the county.

I visited Brownscombe House on a warm, sunny day in July to attend CHD Living's 40 year anniversary celebrations. Before they began, however, I sat down with director Shaleeza Hasham and her father, founder and CEO Liakat Hasham, to discuss the beginnings of CHD Living, the expansion of Brownscombe House over the past few decades, the provider's values and ethos, and much more besides.

Having arrived in the UK in 1972 after fleeing Idi Amin's brutal regime in Uganda, the Hasham family — drawn to Surrey by the opportunities presented by the area's higher than average elderly population — bought Brownscombe House from the British arm of Italian typewriter manufacturer Olivetti in 1984, with the family moving into a small cottage on the site while they set about the business of transforming Brownscombe House — originally built in 1898 — into a 19-bed nursing home.