This Hospice Care Week (6 – 12 October 2025), Rowcroft Hospice is joining hospices across the UK to celebrate the extraordinary difference hospice care makes to patients and families every single day.
With the theme for this year’s Hospice Care Week ‘Hospice care is more than you think’, Rowcroft is highlighting the many ways that care goes beyond what most people imagine – not just in its Inpatient Unit, but in homes and communities right across South Devon.
At Rowcroft, hospice care is about so much more than pain relief, medical support and symptom management. It’s about helping people to live as well as possible in the time they have, and offering compassion, comfort and dignity through life’s most difficult moments.
One family who experienced this first-hand was Jacqui and Eddie Lyttle from Torquay. Rowcroft supported them when Eddie was nearing the end of his life after living with kidney cancer and other complex conditions. Jacqui said Rowcroft’s care far exceeded their expectations:
“The Community Team attended to every aspect of our care. The small things, like helping us manage practicalities for Eddie’s comfort, made such a big difference. The team even helped us to arrange for Eddie’s equipment to be delivered to a hotel in Cornwall so we could get away for a few days.
“Eddie called the Community Team ‘angels on earth’. They helped minimise his pain and discomfort and ensured he retained as good a quality of life as possible. Rowcroft also offered us both tremendous support through complementary therapy. Eddie felt an instant connection and relaxation; he was able to open up to his complementary therapist, and this helped to ease his anxiety.
“From the moment we were referred to Rowcroft, I never felt alone. The hospice continued to support me after Eddie’s death through a ‘Spaces for Nature’ bereavement group. It was a brilliant support network where we could share our grief and experiences with others who understood. There was no judgement; and we did some amazing activities, like mindfulness and pottery which were healing and helpful. We’ve become life-long friends ever since.
“From our very first interaction with Rowcroft to the support I continue to receive, everything was incredible – and life-changing for us.”
Each year, Rowcroft cares for around 2,500 patients and their loved ones across South Devon. With 80% of patients supported in the community, Rowcroft’s Community and Hospice at Home teams enable people with life-limiting illnesses to remain in the place they most want to be – usually their own home – and to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions at the end of life.
But despite the vital difference hospices make, many are under threat – with rising demand, soaring costs, and insufficient government funding. According to recent figures from Hospice UK, two in five hospices across the UK are planning cuts to essential services.
Hospice UK has launched a nationwide campaign urging people to write to their MP to ask them to attend a special parliamentary event on 15 October where MPs will hear what local hospices need to secure their future, care for more patients, and support the NHS.
Rowcroft’s CEO Mark Hawkins said:
“Hospice care is a lifeline for thousands of families in South Devon and across the UK. But without urgent action, many services will be forced to shrink at the very time when demand is growing. We need the government to recognise that hospice care is more than you think – and that it deserves proper, sustainable funding.
“It takes just a few minutes to email your MP using Hospice UK’s online template – and your voice could help protect hospice care for generations to come.”
To add your voice to the Hospice UK campaign, go to:
https://action.hospiceuk.org/hospice-care-much-more-than-you-think
Or if you’d like to make a donation to support Rowcroft Hospice, visit: www.rowcrofthospice.org.uk
Images attached:
- Hospice at Home nurse Megan King on visit to a patient at home
- Jacqui Lyttle
- Jacqui and Ed Lyttle on wedding day
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About Rowcroft Hospice
It takes time, compassion, medical expertise and money to help patients with life-limiting illnesses and their loved ones to make the most of every day, but every year Rowcroft Hospice helps around 2,500 people in South Devon to do just that.
By providing comfort, support and specialist services, the hospice enables families to share precious moments when they are needed most – whether it’s a beautiful wedding, remarkable reunion or a simple thank you.
From Dartmouth to Dawlish and up onto Dartmoor, Rowcroft cares for 80% of its patients in their own homes with a team of community nurse specialists, social workers, and bereavement volunteers. The team also provides occupational therapy, physiotherapy, complementary therapy, spiritual care and music therapy, delivering a holistic approach tailored to individual needs.
Day and night, Rowcroft’s award-winning Hospice at Home team provide free specialist support to patients at home in their last few of weeks of life. The team helps to monitor and manage symptoms to enable patients to be comfortable and also offers support for loved ones, enabling carers to take much needed breaks. The service includes a dedicated telephone support line 24 hrs a day.
In Rowcroft’s 12-bedded Inpatient Unit in Torquay, the hospice’s team provides specialist care for patients whose complex needs cannot be met at home. Along with high quality health and social care, we also offer delicious homecooked meals and access to our beautiful gardens. The welcoming and homely environment helps patients and families to make the most of precious time together.
Rowcroft is an independent charity with around 75% of its funding derived from the incredible generosity of local people. The hospice team fully acknowledges the current challenging economic climate and is grateful for the local community’s continued support through these tough times; every pound raised makes a real difference.
With an increasingly ageing local population, the demand for Rowcroft’s care has never been greater. The charity currently cares for around one in three people with life-limiting illnesses across South Devon and has ambitious plans to expand its care to reach more people.
For more information, please visit www.rowcrofthospice.org.uk
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