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Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice
Susan Ross, 71, from Welling, has had to be a tower of strength for many members of her family over the past three decades – so being able to rely on Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice herself for support at some very difficult points has been a lifeline for her. Here Susan explains why the help offered by the hospice’s varied services means so much…
“I’ve been surprised about all the ways the hospice has helped us”
S
usan’s youngest daughter Caroline was just a teenager when she started noticing worrying health symptoms. By age 15, Caroline, now 44, could no longer walk in a straight line and was frequently falling down stairs. Tests revealed she had a condition called Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where a thickening of the heart muscle makes it hard for blood to be pumped around the body. But this was only the start. Further tests carried out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting found mumof-one Caroline also had a condition called Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) – a neurological
disorder that affects mobility and coordination which deteriorates over time. The knowledge that Caroline would need a lot of support in later years and likely would die young, was very hard to come to terms with for both Susan and her late husband Nigel. Susan says: “We discovered that both Nigel and I carried the gene that causes FRDA, but our two other daughters weren’t affected by the condition. Caroline has been very poorly for a long time and we don’t expect her to live long. I’m surprised she’s still here in some ways. It’s very hard all round.” Caroline was first referred to the hospice
