North Devon Hospice Newsletter - Summer 2015

news For supporters and friends of North Devon Hospice

Spring / Summer 2015

Issue 43

The Long House gets built

New relaxation CD for patients

Discover our Lynton shop

Day Hospice plans to welcome more patients and carers

‘‘Day Hospice is a great place to come and meet others in a similar situation.’’ Read more on page 10

being there for all the family

Gents Event A key philosophy of North Devon Hospice is that we look after the whole person, not just their symptoms. As part of looking after people’s broader well-being, we’ve held ‘Pamper Days’ and ‘Look Good, Feel Great’ sessions for a number of years. They have proved to be a fantastic way of enhancing the well-being of our patients as well as their carers, whose lives have been impacted dramatically by a life-limiting illness.

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This has been a real pleasure

In the past these sessions have mainly appealed to women, so it was with great pleasure that we hosted our first men only pamper session here at Deer Park this spring. It was a chance for chaps to be spoiled and enjoy a day in the company of others who are in a similar situation. This pilot ‘Gents Event’ was really well received.

Gordon, pictured above, had a traditional wet shave and smart new hair cut from local barber, Mike Doyle. Gordon said he found it a very enjoyable experience, while Mike said it was a pleasure to help out in this way.

Thanks go to Mike and all the other professionals who volunteered their time and expertise in order to make a real difference to some of our patients and their carers.

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Saying farewell to Annie...

For more than 20 years, Annie Hogg has been the face of North Devon Hospice in the Holsworthy area. This has been her patch as one of our community clinical nurse specialists and she has become a well known face after caring for so many local people in their own homes.

However, after more than two decades of supporting this community, Annie is going to be enjoying her retirement. Of her time with the hospice, Annie said: “I have never wanted to work anywhere else since starting here.

The team are such an incredible bunch of people and we help each other out. It is an emotional job but over the years you learn ways of coping and it helps to know that you really can make a difference. At the hospice, we have some fantastic staff and nurses and I know they will do a great job in the future.’’

Annie’s retirement comes on the cusp of big changes to the care and support the hospice will be providing in the Holsworthy area. The Long House, our new outreach facility in the town, is due for completion this summer and will allow even more care to be provided closer to home. Annie said: “I think The Long House will make a huge difference. It will open up a new dimension for care provision by the hospice in Holsworthy and the surrounding communities.’’

...and introducing Kath One of the fantastic nurses that Annie mentions is Kath Howarth. Kath has been with North Devon Hospice for 2 years, and will be looking after people in the Holsworthy area after Annie’s retirement.

As an experienced nurse and an established member of our community clinical nurse specialist team, Kath will offer a great deal to local people. She will visit patients and families in their own homes, giving advice on managing symptoms and pain, as well as offering support to everyone involved. w w w. n o r t h d evo n h o s p i c e . o r g . u k . b e i n g t h e re fo r a l l t h e f a m i ly 02

L-R: Sue, Lynn and Charlie

Stories about becoming a volunteer counsellor Charlie: In 2013, Charlie was looking uplifted and knowing I really wanted to for a new direction in her life so after her be part of a team and a place that felt like children went to college, so did she. that.'' The student placement gave Charlie ''I was ready for a change so decided on a breadth of counselling experience. ''My counselling. As a therapeutic counselling clients have been incredibly varied and student I needed to complete 100 hours although people usually come to see me of counselling experience and I had to find due to a death in the family, very often somewhere that could enable me to do people needed to deal with other issues that.'' At the time, the from their past as well.'' hospice was recruiting Having finished her training, people to join the Charlie now works as a paid I knew instantly it was volunteer team of full-time member of staff. the kind of volunteering counsellors. Charlie ''Most people believe, as I I really wanted to do. I decided to apply, but not did, that a hospice is about wanted to be there for only because she needed dying, but actually what I people who were going counselling experience have discovered is that it’s for her course; about supporting people to through life-changing ''Having lost my father live the most fulfilling life experiences. Charlie ten years before, I knew they can for as long as they my mother had really can and supporting them benefitted from the and their loved ones when support the hospice offered her. I went the time comes. To share in that, I feel along to the interview and left feeling privileged to come to work everyday.''

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Sue: Sue, a long-standing member of the volunteer team since the late 90s, also understands that facing loss is a natural part of living. ''Learning about how to deal with loss, big or little, is something we all share at different times in our lives. My sister died of cancer in 1996 in Norway.

I spent the last three weeks of her life with her, helping to care for her in her home up in the mountains. I was so impressed with the home care she, and we, received during these last weeks, I really felt I wanted to work in this field one day.''

It was in the 90s that the hospice bereavement service began and the hospice needed skilled volunteers to offer support and a listening ear to people who were grieving. ''When the hospice first advertised for bereavement volunteers I knew instantly that this was the kind of work I really wanted to do; I wanted to be there for other people who were going through the life-changing experiences of bereavement. I never find the work we do, listening to people, depressing or morbid, as some friends have suggested. I find it incredibly rewarding work, every client teaches me something.''

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I meet people from all walks of life, dealing with all sorts of issues. To see people smile or laugh as we go along is wonderful. Lynn Charlie

Lynn: Lynn, who joined the team as a volunteer two years ago agrees. ''I get an enormous amount from the work. It is demanding and extremely rewarding; uplifting even. I meet people from all walks of life, dealing with all sorts of issues.

To see people smile or laugh as we go along is wonderful.''

Lynn started training as a Relate counsellor in 1979 and then went on to become a psychotherapist. Although retired now, volunteering has always played a part in Lynn's life, so when she heard North Devon Hospice was looking for help, she applied. Her experience of joining the hospice is that the volunteers are well-supported to do the work. ''We have excellent supervisors and use group supervision too. There is a generosity of spirit and a lot of laughter.''

Lynn sums it up. ‘‘We give a hand to people going through a crisis who don’t wish to burden family or friends, or for people who don’t have anyone. It is a professional service and I feel very honoured to be part of the support system at the hospice.’’

Volunteering We have over 500 volunteers working throughout the hospice.

Some people work in supporting roles such as in Finance and IT. We also have people volunteering to help provide our care and support, like Lynn and Sue working as bereavement counsellors.

One of our volunteers had a number one hit and sang on Top of the Pops!

To keep our charity shops open we rely on volunteers.

Hospice staff often volunteer at our fundraising events.

Would you like to find out more about volunteering?

Please contact Kim for an informal chat or some more information.

Kim Jones,Volunteer Development Manager kimjones@northdevonhospice.org.uk Tel: 01271 347226

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New 'Relaxation CD' is now available ''It is my pleasure to have relaxation as one of my duties! Relaxation can mean different things to different people. Whether someone is a patient or a carer, it is perfectly natural for people to have trouble sleeping or feel worried or anxious when they are affected by a life-limiting illness. I can show people how to use various relaxation techniques to help them through troublesome times. I also lead group relaxation sessions for patients, carers and staff. These sessions can help people to learn how to relax, rest and help promote sleep. I’ve made this CD of guided relaxation so we’re able to give them to our patients and their carers, helping to make our care and support more accessible to people, wherever they may be, at whatever time of the day or night. The CDs are available from the hospice and all the tracks are available on the hospice website.''

Beth, Complementary Therapy Team Leader

Wedding Favours

Make your day even more special by knowing that your Wedding Favours have helped support patients and their families who are affected by a life-limiting illness.

Enter your guests into the hospice’s lottery for just £1 per person giving them a chance to win £1,000.

Please contact Mike from our Lottery team on 01271 347217 for more details or email mikepenny@northdevonhospice.org.uk.

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Regular support We can only continue to provide care from The Long House with your continued support. If you would like to make a regular donation, to help us care for local people today and in the future, please contact Su Massey by calling 01271 347233. Thank you.

T H A N K YO U !

The Long House opens its doors this summer

After two years of research, planning, fundraising and building, our brand new outreach centre in Holsworthy is due to open this summer.

It is a momentous milestone and one that wouldn’t have been possible without the support and fundraising of the local community. Thank you to everyone who has made a donation and supported this vision to bring more care closer to home! Everyone at North Devon Hospice is incredibly grateful for this support.

The Long House will help us provide even more care and support to people in the vast surrounding area, many of whom find it impossible to make the 2-hour return trip to our main hospice base in Barnstaple. It marks a major step forward, as we continue with our mission of trying to provide as much care as we can, as close to people’s homes as possible.

The services offered from The Long House will include one-to-one counselling, group support and complementary therapies, while it will also act as a base for our Community Clinical Nurse Specialists as they visit patients in their own homes. Our Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Dr Murray Fletcher, will also be able to hold outpatient appointments here, while using it as a base to support the team at Holsworthy Community Hospital.

Services offered to patients and families from The Long House: - One-to-one counselling - Group support - Complementary therapies - Pamper days - Outpatient appointments with our Consultant in Palliative Medicine - Community nursing.

The building will be a base for our Community Clinical Nurse Specialists Lottery support... and winners!

One of the most popular ways of local people showing their support for The Long House Appeal was to sign up to our hospice lottery club. Hundreds chose to join for just £1 a week, with the chance of winning one of 35 cash prizes. This spring, we saw 3 top prize winners in a row in the Holsworthy area, each scooping the £1,000 jackpot! It seems a lucky place to live when it comes to our hospice lottery.

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Cynthia’s Story A patients journey of care and support

''If it was physically possible I would willingly parade in the High Street bearing a sandwich board proclaiming the wonderful care and love to be had at our hospice.

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We met. I talked. She listened.

I was able to say the unthinkable, express the unbearable, shed the unsheddable tears...

Looking back I find it difficult to recall just how long I have been relying on the expert help to be had there. My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer. At first he refused to let anyone at all know but relented so far as immediate family when I said to him that, not only could I not deal with it alone, but that our three children would never forgive us, nor was it fair to any of us.

I was talking to my own doctor when he suddenly and gently suggested that maybe I

should see a nurse from the hospice. Why? I realised that I had been pleating and folding and repleating my handkerchief all the time I was talking to him. Reluctantly I agreed but asked to see her away from home as I knew my husband would be uncomfortable with the idea.

We met. I talked. She listened. I was able to say the unthinkable, express the unbearable, shed the unsheddable tears and receive calm, gentle words giving strategies for dealing with the burden of anger, grief and resentment. I was encouraged to go to a group run for carers and found immense help and solace there, hearing that others had these feelings and that mine were nothing unusual or to be ashamed about.

My husband had by then realised the immense help I was receiving and to my delight asked to be included in the house visits. These were conducted with such sensitivity and discretion that not once did he lose his sense of privacy or dignity.

Some months later another blow came when my younger son was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins disease and he had been given a shockingly terrifying prognosis with the prospect of only a few months to live.

He was 24 and newly married and had a particularly virulent form of that illness.

Again the support from the hospice was more than invaluable.

How fortunate we have been; against all odds my son recovered. My husband sadly did not and yet again there was the rock – a bereavement group where once again anything and everything could be aired in total confidence.

Along with much of the above came my daughter’s ill health. Together with other long-term back problems she apparently had the spine of a sixty-five year old through

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degeneration for which she had treatment three times a week. The final blow was breast cancer and a particularly unusual one.

Again the hospice supported the family and I came to rely more and more on the compassionate presence and advice given so freely. This continued throughout chemo, radiotherapy and operations until tragically her sudden death.

Once again I continued to have counselling and never failed to be comforted and sustained by it. To be able to share the turmoil of conflicting emotions without boring or upsetting someone is a privilege.

Friends really do not want to know and family have their own grief to deal with, thus

the presence of calm, thoughtful comment is inestimable and I had it and still do.

I have attended the hospice for many years in varying guises and have recently had the huge comfort of being privy to the many extra offerings it has for those who are patients and carers. I simply do not have the words to express my admiration and gratitude for all I have received, and still receive, from every single person who works there. The army of volunteers without whom it would be impossible for it to survive. To step over the threshold is to instantly be aware of the dedication from an immense team who work tirelessly to provide Love, Living and Laughter to those who need it so much.�

From the Day Hospice lounge, to children in Malawi...

Knitted hats and jumpers, made by patients in Day Hospice, are now helping to clothe children in Malawi. They were delivered by our former hospice doctor, Dr Howard Friend, who is now working in Africa.

Howard provided us with these lovely pictures of the clothes being worn by

children in the country, and it is really great to see them making a difference.

Congratulations to everyone from Day Hospice who was involved in this.

If you’d like to get involved, please do think of us if you have any spare balls of wool or half balls that you no longer need.

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Our charity shop in Lynton... is unique and, compared by one recent visitor to a department store, for the sheer breadth of treasures on sale.

Volunteer, Cathy Richards, has been managing the shop for over 10 years and along with her team of dedicated helpers, makes the shop a haven for tourists who visit this beautiful village from far afield.

Cathy says that bric-a-brac is most popular with her shop customers, as people look for a charming souvenir of their visit, and she would love to have more donations of that kind. Cathy’s passion for making the shop successful is rooted in the end goal of helping patients and families who need the hospice. She said: “Having dignity and excellent care at the end of life is tremendously important. That is the very least people deserve, so it is a pleasure to help make that happen through this hospice shop.�

Day Hospice refurbishment The Day Hospice lounge here at Deer Park has undergone a refurbishment and is now more pleasant and welcoming than ever.

“Really relaxing.Wow, is that the same dresser?”

‘‘It’s beautiful, just so tranquil and calming, I love it.’’

Nurse Maggie Berry said: “Day Hospice is a very vibrant and uplifting place, so we wanted to create a room that reflected that. The previous space was very dated and didn’t reflect the amazing spirit and energy that Day Hospice has. We are so pleased with the finished result, and we hope it will attract even more people to come and give this a try. Day Hospice is a great place to come and meet others who are in a similar situation. It becomes like a family, as we support each other through the journey together. but we also enjoy plenty of activities as well, so there really is something for everyone.”

As well as Day Hospice, we have a range of different services available to support our patients and their carers including: - One-to-one support - Patients support group - Carers support group - “Look Good, Feel Great” sessions - It’s Friday drop-in

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£

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1st Prize

The £5,000 e fl f a 2nd Prize R

BIG CALL US

£1,000

to buy your

BIG RAFFLE TICKETS 01271 347232

Drawn on 30th October at The Big Sheep You must be 16 years or over to participate.

Promoted by: North Devon Hospice, Deer Park, Newport, Barnstaple, EX32 0HU. Contact: S. Husband. Ts and Cs apply, available at www.northdevonhospice.org.uk

All profits to North Devon Hospice

3rd Prize

£500

£

Sponsored by

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