We’re celebrating our people this Hospice Care Week!

Our staff and volunteers from various roles and services have been sharing what hospice care means to them this Hospice Care Week, which takes place 9th-15th October, with the theme ‘We are Hospice Care’.

We currently have 405 employees and more than 800 volunteers who deliver a range of specialist care and supporting services to people across the North East.

It will be these staff and volunteers whom the Hospice will be celebrating during Hospice Care Week 2023.

Hospice Care Week is an annual awareness week organised by Hospice UK. It provides a chance to highlight hospice care nationwide and the incredible work being done by staff and volunteers, who support more than 300,000 people in the UK every year.

Steph Edusei, our CEO said:

“Hospice care is there for everyone. We want people across the North East to know we are here for you, whoever you are. By ‘we’ I mean our people – absolutely everyone who works or volunteers for us – we are hospice care.

“We know it is our staff and volunteers who make St Oswald’s Hospice the warm and welcoming place it is and really make a difference – in whatever role they do – and we will be sharing what hospice care means to them during the awareness week.

“By doing so, we want to highlight how our people enable us to deliver outstanding care and ensure quality time for all our patients and their families, across the variety of hospice services we provide.”

Dianne Hughes has been volunteering at the Hospice since her husband, Bob, sadly died here in August 2022, having been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

Bob previously made referrals to the St Oswald’s Hospice’s Children and Young Adult’s Service through his job as a social worker. It was his wish for his end-of-life care to be at the Hospice.

Dianne now volunteers as a receptionist at the Hospice to help welcome patients and their families.

She said: “The team were so amazing to me and my husband that I wanted to give something back.

“I feel so blessed to have met and married Bob but more importantly, he got his wish to pass in such a wonderful place.”

We are also hoping that sharing a variety of staff and volunteers’ stories will challenge the idea that hospices are only for end-of-life care.

Angela Egdell, is our Director of Care Services. She explained:

“It’s a misconception we hear again and again that hospices are just for end-of-life care.

“Of course, it’s a key aspect of what we do. But we also want to showcase people from the services the public may be less familiar with and who help us provide a holistic approach to palliative care.”

For example, we are the largest specialist Lymphoedema Service in the North East and is recognised as a national centre of excellence in lymphoedema management.

Lily Ballantyne and Lucy Fraser are two newly qualified Occupational Therapists who have recently joined St Oswald’s Hospice as Lymphoedema Practitioners.

Lucy said:

“As a Lymphoedema Practitioner, I help people manage their symptoms. I can see the impact we make, not only on a patient’s health physically but their mental health, too.”

Lily added:

“Here at the hospice, we have so many services like family and bereavement support and our Focus on Living Centre. It ties together this holistic approach. It’s amazing. Every week should be hospice care week!”

Thank you to everyone who has supported Hospice Care Week this year!

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Take a look at the posters below featuring some of our staff and volunteers created for Hospice Care Week. Click on an image to view the full poster.