Highlights from Hospice Care Week 2013

David Praill, chief executive of Help the Hospices kicked off proceedings with a filmed welcome message. He called for communities to get involved with their local hospice during the week and expressed both his professional and personal reasons for supporting hospice care.

Celebrations, activities and quirky fundraising events have taken place in schools, offices, supermarkets and even inside large plastic boxes!

But hospices have also welcomed communities through their doors by holding open days for the public in an attempt to de-mystify hospice care and offer and understanding of day-to-day life within a hospice.

Politicians take the pledge

Politicians have played a key role in the annual awareness-raising week too, helping hospices to increase the profile of their work and ensure the future of hospice care is firmly on the local and national agenda.

Three high-profile politicians started the ball rolling with Norman Lamb, Minister of State for Care and Support, Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham and Health Select Committee member, Sarah Wollaston, offering their support at this year’s party conference fringe events.

The leading political figures each took the ‘Count me in!’ pledge; a Hospice Care Week promise to tell five new people why hospice care counts. A gallery of images has been collated on the Hospice Care Week website.

Lord Michael Howard also took the pledge at The Hospice of St Francis, where he was given a tour and spent time talking to staff, patients and volunteers. He described the visit as “fascinating.”

On October 10, the Scottish government marked the occasion with a visit from Before I Die – a global public art project that invites people to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space. The organisation, Good life, Good death, Good grief, brought the project to the walls of St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, as reported on ehospice.

Success in social media

Social media proved to be an effective way to engage the public and supporters in spreading the hospice care message, with many local hospices taking to Twitter and Facebook to upload images and videos of the events taking place.

It was an opportunity to highlight the stories of people who benefit from the services, such as Doreen at Havens Hospices in Essex, who cares for her husband:

@HelptheHospices Doreen shares what it was like to be a carer to her husband & the support she received: http://t.co/DptyZi94CD

— Havens Hospices (@HavensHospices) October 9, 2013

Two hospices in particular took on an epic Twitter challenge, by completing a 24-hour ‘tweetathon’.

ehospice reported on the minute-by-minute accounts of Demelza Hospice in Kent and St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol, as they took followers on a virtual tour of hospice life via the medium of Twitter.

Demelza Hospice even got their mascot, Dotty, involved:

Dotty had the pleasure of meeting some of our children who are staying at our hospice today! #HospiceCareWeek pic.twitter.com/sptZy4yyEn

— Demelza Hospice (@DemelzaHospice) October 7, 2013

Emotional stories

There were moving accounts too.

On Tuesday, ehospice told the emotional story of Frank and his family who describe their care at Shooting Star CHASE as “vital”. Five-year-old Frank has a rare, life-limiting condition called late-infantile Batten disease and his mother Rachel explained why hospice care is so important to families like theirs.

On a local level, the message from Hospice Care Week 2013 was for supporters to write to their MPs to get hospice care on the local agenda.

ehospice spoke to the Rotherham Hospice CEO, Mike Wilkerson, who told us his inspiring story about how he managed to put end of life care firmly on the local health and wellbeing strategy.

And of course, the week would not have been complete without some weird and wacky fundraising events, including an abseiling Batman!

But what caught the attention of ehospice, was daredevil fundraiser, Richard Stonier’s challenge to live in a plastic box for the entire week to raise funds for Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

Dispelling hospice myths

Hospice Care Week 2013 coincided with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day this year, which took place on Saturday 12 October across the globe.

Its slogan: ‘Achieving Universal Coverage of Palliative Care: Dispelling the myths’, links closely with the theme of a new film launched by The Hospice of St Francis during Hospice Care Week.

Entitled, ‘The Extra Mile,’ the film shows the day-to-day work that goes on at the hospice but also the special moments which help to make a difference to the lives of its patients and those close to them.

The film can be viewed on Vimeo.