Welcome

To the Spring/ Summer 2020 edition of Life magazine

In honor of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the World Health Organisation has designated 2020 as the first ever global “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”. It coincides with what is already an exciting time for us as we prepare to share with you the areas of development we’ll be pursuing over the course of our next strategic plan.

We know all too well the challenges the care sector has faced over the past few years and nurse shortages, an issue highly publicised across the UK, continue to put pressure on our vital health services. St Columba’s Hospice Care remains in a strong position, and as a supporter, you have a large part to play in that. Although we’re still in the early planning stages, I can share that our priorities are to increase community-based services across Edinburgh and East Lothian, develop a Hospice at Home team and introduce new role opportunities for staff and volunteers.

We look forward to introducing these service improvements to the community we take such pride in supporting and of course, celebrating our workforce throughout the year. Nursing is a career with a great deal to offer and to mark the occasion, we’ll be showcasing our team’s diverse expertise and the impact they have on the lives of so many. You can meet some of our care team on page 16 and keep an eye on our website and social media channels for updates over the coming months.

I’m happy to report we enjoyed a successful festive period with our Light up a Life campaign raising over £110,000. We also celebrated the end of another fruitful year in

See what our corporate supporters have been up to, p.22

”A truly special place.”, p.14

partnership with Ocean Terminal as our varied fundraising activity totalled an impressive £137,000! You can read more about developments in the fundraising world throughout this issue.

You’ll also notice our refreshed branding is being rolled out and recently, we unveiled our vibrant new website. We took all of your comments on board and hope you’ll agree that, in addition to having lots of great information and resources about our services, it looks fantastic and is much easier to navigate - we’d love to hear your thoughts which you can share by emailing info@ stcolumbashospice. org.uk. As you can see, we have a busy year ahead of us and I’d like to thank you for your continued support and feedback. Each of you plays a vital role in making the wonderful care and support we are known for possible, and with your help we can reach more people in the way that suits them best in 2020, and beyond.

Jackie Stone CEO

— P.s. When it comes to delivering world class palliative care, your feedback is invaluable to us. We want to know what’s important to you. So, if you have comments or concerns about any aspect of our service please get in touch by emailing info@stcolumbashospice.org.uk.