HRH The Princess Royal Visits Strathcarron – Scotland’s Largest Independent Hospice

HRH The Princess Royal was given a warm welcome when she visited Strathcarron Hospice on November 1st.

The Princess Royal, who is a familiar face at the Fankerton Hospice, met with the new CEO of the Hospice Mags McCarthy for the first time, alongside Lord Lieutenant Alan Simpson, Provost Robert Bissett and Chief Superintendent Roddy Irvine, Divisional Commander of Forth Valley Division Police Scotland.

She then toured the Hospice spending time chatting with staff, volunteers, supporters and patients on the ward.

In Strathcarron’s 43-year history the HRH The Princess Royal has visited the Hospice 37 times since its first birthday in 1982.

As part of her visit The Princess Royal was given a presentation by staff on the Hospice’s two projects they are running in partnership with Glenochil Prison on frailty and bereavement.

She also met with Hospice volunteers, representative from Cumbernauld Action and Care for the Elderly,

pupils from Greenfaulds High School (formerly Cumbernauld PS),

Fallin Primary and

Mclaren High School (formerly Killin Primary School) and Live Your Life patient Laura McGowan who has been featured as part of the Strathcarron Stories Podcast series.

Mags said: “We are delighted to welcome HRH The Princess Royal for her annual visit. There has been a great buzz about the place as we eagerly anticipated her arrival and we are very grateful for the time she devotes to staff, volunteers, supporters, patients and families.

“The Princess Royal met individual patients in our Inpatient Unit in private and each patient will receive a photograph of their meeting with her.  We know that these become cherished family mementos of a lovely day.

“We are grateful for the devotion HRH The Princess Royal has shown the Hospice over the years. It has been much appreciated.”

Care and services right across our communities and within the 24 bedded ward in the Hospice are provided by 243 staff with support from hundreds of volunteers who contributed over 30,000 hours of volunteering during 2022-23.

The largest independent Hospice in Scotland, Strathcarron provides essential services for patients with life-limiting conditions (including end-of-life care) for patients living in Forth Valley and Cumbernauld and Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire.

In 2022-23 the Hospice provided care for 323 patients in our 24 patient bedded unit, supported 357 Hospice at Home patients including 3286 visits, carried out 6435 Community Nurse Specialists visits to 1109 new patients and made 8142 clinical calls.

The Hospice has to raise £16,637 daily to provide the specialist end of life care and services to individuals and their families across its communities.

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Her Royal Highness was introduced to individuals and representatives of organisations who have supported the Hospice throughout the past year. This included:

Hospice volunteers: Lorna Crozier, Marlene Wood, Bill Harper, Karen Chilles, Derek Young, John Mitchell, Lorna Anderson, Sheila McDuff.

Hospice volunteer fundraising supporters: Claire Bain and Ross Turnbull (Merck Stirling), Alan Johnston, Colin and Ross Myles, Paul Kenny (Falkirk Round Table), Dougie Grant and Pamela Turkington (BAM Nutall).

Community development representatives: Anne Brannan, Wilma Paterson and George Smith from Cumberland Action and Care for the Elderly. Also Tess Cassidy PHD Student and representatives from:

HRH also met with members of the Council of Management: Julie McVicar, Nicola Rae, Dr Karyn Webster, Baljit Dhillon and Paul Hinds.

A short presentation was given to The Princess Royal on the Hospice’s two projects with Glenochil Prison on frailty and bereavement by Amy Cordiner Patient and Family Support Manager, Debbie Soutter Community Clinical Nurse Specialist, Dr Joy Rafferty Hospice Physician, Dr Jack Kildare Prisons GP and Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Eilish McBeth, Chloe Prentice and Louise Kane.

We support people across Forth Valley, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth living with a life limiting condition. We help to make every moment count for patients and their families, so that they can live well with their illness and make the most of the time they have, and when the time comes, to die well.

Strathcarron Hospice needs to raise around £102,000 a week to provide all their services, which are free to those who use them across our local communities.

As well as In-patient and Hospice@Home care, our highly skilled multidisciplinary teams include Nursing teams, Patient and Family Support (social work), Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Pharmacist, Chaplains, Complementary Therapists, Consultants in Palliative Medicine and Specialty Doctors.

As a charity, Strathcarron Hospice is funded by the people we serve. They walk, run, cycle, jump, bake and go to many other amazing efforts to fundraise for their local Hospice. Strathcarron simply cannot continue delivering our valuable services free of charge, without the ongoing support of our communities.

With only one third of our hospice funded by the Government, we are incredibly grateful to our generous supporters who make up the significant shortfall.