Hospice to open second Wiltshire bereavement cafe
A second bereavement cafe is set to open in Wiltshire due to high demand.Prospect Hospice, based in Swindon, is set to launch the new cafe in Royal Wootton Bassett on 6 March.The hospice opened its first cafe in Marlborough in 2023 after families of patients said they needed a drop-in service to talk about losing loved ones.Jaqui Gullis, clinical lead for therapy services at Prospect Hospice, said the town was a "natural choice".
Ms Gullis said the cafe would be open to anyone."Through the care we offer in our community, and various conversations we were having with patients and their families, we realised there was a real need for a community-based drop-in service open to those dealing with grief," she said.The cafe will be in the Angel Hotel and will be open from 10:30 GMT.
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BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
St Margaret's Hospice hosts crisis fundraiser amid £100k shortfall
People have two days to raise £100,000 to help keep a much-loved hospice afloat. A hospice has launched at 36-hour fundraising event in an effort to balance its budget in the wake of increasing demand and unexpected St Margaret's Hospice, in Taunton, has launched a 36-hour fundraising event in an effort to balance its budget in the wake of increasing demand and unexpected costs. Supporters have until Friday evening, to raise the money through crowdfunding. There will also be sponsored walks and art Hall, the hospice's fundraising manager, said: "Demand on our care is growing, costs are increasing, and funding is difficult to secure." It is thought the charity needs about £12m a year to run its services, but Ms Hall said centres all over the UK were facing "new challenges".She added the increase to National Insurance alone is costing an additional £300,000 this year, which was not part of the charity's initial budgets a year ago."That was something we didn't anticipate, and couldn't have known when we set the budgets," she other £200,000 shortfall from National Insurance can be covered by its network of shops and legacy donors. It is hoped from Thursday to Friday evening, the public, as well as a number of corporate partners, will raise the £100,000 it needs through the charity's fundraiser, which it has called Every Moment Hall said she is "confident" the hospice can reach its fundraising target, describing it as a "real challenge".There is also match funding available up to £50,000 which has been provided by "generous supporters".Supporters can donate online, or head into shops across the county.
Times
3 days ago
- Times
Dr Anne Merriman obituary: doctor known as ‘mother of palliative care in Africa'
Dr Anne Merriman revolutionised palliative and end-of-life care in Africa after developing a cheap form of oral morphine with a Singapore hospital pharmacist. Originally mixed in a kitchen sink, it included a pound of morphine, a preservative and colouring: lighter doses were green; stronger ones, pink and blue. A bottle cost about $2, a fraction of the cost of western formulations. Universally known as 'Dr Anne', she said: 'It's easier than baking a cake.' She developed the pain-controlling recipe after seeing terminally ill patients discharged from hospital because 'nothing more could be done for them'. Many died at home in severe and prolonged pain. 'A wild, undisciplined schoolgirl' who became a nun and a doctor, Merriman founded the pioneering Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) in 1993 at the age of 57. Palliative care was largely unknown in Africa when she started her work in Uganda. HAU has treated more than 35,000 patients and trained more than 10,000 healthcare professionals from 37 African countries in the so-called Merriman model. Tough, stubborn and charismatic, she conceded that her 'brash and insensitive ways' had offended people, adding: 'I find it amazing that God has used this blemish as one of my greatest strengths.' It enabled her, she said, to be 'a forceful and obsessive' advocate for hospice care and to stand up to older male doctors who claimed that morphine prescribing would promote drug abuse. In her book Audacity to Love, published in 2010, she wrote: 'In Africa, in particular, some men are more dominant than in the rest of the world and don't take well to a female doctor bringing in a new speciality. 'Even today in Uganda, considered to have the best palliative care in Africa, there are consultants who refuse to allow patients' pain to be treated with oral morphine, even though sometimes these patients are their own colleagues.' Calling herself a 'true Scouser', she was born in Liverpool in 1935, the third of four children of Thomas ('Toddy'), a primary school headmaster, and Josephine Merriman (née Dunne). A bright, questioning child, she wanted to become a Catholic priest like her older brother Joseph and later wrote: 'I could not understand such discrimination and I still feel the same way.' The catalyst for her passion for palliative care emerged in childhood when her 11-year-old brother Bernard died from a brain tumour. She later spoke passionately about the absence of palliative care for him. There were other signposts signalling a spectacular future in caring. At the age of four, after seeing pictures of sick African children in a magazine, she declared: 'I'm going to Africa to look after the poorly children.' Nine years later she saw a film showing the Irish head of the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) riding around the Nigerian village of Anua on a bicycle. She told her mother and a nun at school that she wanted to join the order and did so at the age of 18 after leaving Broughton Hall Catholic High School in West Derby, Liverpool. Recognising a rich potential in the wayward, recalcitrant novice with disappointing exam results, MMM enrolled her in a three-year internship at the International Missionary Training Hospital in Drogheda, Ireland. She spent a further year in a medical laboratory before going to medical school at University College Dublin. As a young doctor Merriman worked in MMM hospitals in Nigeria and in Drogheda, Edinburgh and Dublin. After 20 years as a religious sister and missionary, she returned to secular life in Liverpool to look after her sick mother and to specialise for eight years in geriatric medicine. Increasingly concerned by patients dying 'without pain and symptom control', she followed the teaching of Dame Cicely Saunders (obituary, July 15, 2005), the founder of the modern hospice movement. Saunders created a new kind of hospice, St Christopher's in Sydenham, southeast London, combining compassionate care with medical care. But Merriman's vision of a hospice was not restricted to a physical building. Hospice care, she said, could be given in the most appropriate place, including the patient's home. It included emotional, social and spiritual support as well as pain control. This made pragmatic sense in Uganda where 90 per cent of the population are reported to live in rural areas where doctors are scarce. Uganda became the first African country to permit nurses and trained clinical officers (physician assistants) to prescribe morphine; and the first African country to make palliative care part of its health service. After her mother's death in 1981, Merriman worked in Calcutta with Mother Teresa whose order included a hospice; in Penang in Malaysia as an associate professor; and in Singapore as a senior teaching fellow. In 1990 she accepted an invitation to become the first medical director of the Nairobi Hospice, only to leave quickly because of 'bureaucratic interference'. A case history she published in Contact, a World Council of Churches journal, secured her future in Africa. Describing a terminally ill patient who had a pain-free, peaceful death, it attracted invitations from several African countries who wanted to develop palliative care services. She chose Uganda as it was emerging from 25 years of war and reeling under the HIV crisis. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (obituary, December 27, 2021) said in 2018: 'Anne has created a uniquely African template of love, dignity, care and compassion for people.' Nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2014 and appointed MBE, Merriman protested that 'caring for the dying is the lowest priority in healthcare because doctors are trying to cure, not to care'. She lived in a large house overlooking Lake Victoria with her 'family', including three housekeepers and 15 dogs, once led by Adam and Eve. When Eve died she declared that Adam was grieving and found him a new partner. A warm, welcoming hostess, she was renowned locally for her Tuesday night dinners where 12 or more guests would include local dignitaries, visiting specialists and overnighting donors and volunteers. But she could also, as she put it, create a frosty atmosphere in a tropical climate. In one notable case, she highlighted the tragedy of Robert, a terminally ill 12-year-old boy with a huge cancer, a Burkitt's lymphoma, on his face. Robert slept under a counter in his aunt's shop and Merriman regularly took him to the hospice for a change of scene. He grimaced in pain as they drove across the many potholes along the way. Merriman said: 'After his [Robert's] death, the President of the USA, Bill Clinton, visited Uganda … They levelled the road so he wouldn't get a bump on the bum. The Roberts of this world do not count. But Presidents do. How sick is that?' Anne Merriman, doctor, was born on May 13, 1935. She died from respiratory failure on May 18, 2025, aged 90
BBC News
10-06-2025
- BBC News
Hospice plans could see 16 bed unit on Norfolk and Suffolk coast
A hospice charity has submitted plans to develop an end-of-life care facility in a coastal town 18 years after fundraising Hospice Care launched in 2007, changing its name to East Coast Hospice two years later. In 2023 the charity merged with St Elizabeth Hospice, based in charity says it wants to build a community hospice with 16 beds on its site at Sidegate Lane in Gorleston near Great Newman, chief executive of St Elizabeth Hospice, said: "We are delighted to submit this planning application and share our full plans with the wider community." Plans to build a hospice between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth have stalled for almost two decades as rival charities competed over plans, sites and community was split over supporting the James Paget University Hospital wanting to build a hospice at the Louise Hamilton Cancer Centre, within its site or the independent East Coast Hospice, which had land and won planning consent for a 10-bed the NHS withdrew its plans, East Coast Hospice merged with St Elizabeth which immediately conducted a feasibility study which found a hospice was needed to help patients in Great Yarmouth and said the previous plans were not suitable to the needs identified in its report, and it appointed Norwich-based LSI proposed unit would feature 16 inpatient beds, an outpatient and community hub for day care and therapies as well as a community café. Roberta Lovick, ambassador for the Louise Hamilton Trust, said: "The strength of our partnership will help us achieve our vision of bringing greater parity to end-of-life care in Great Yarmouth and Waveney."When my daughter Louise died in 1998, I vowed to dedicate my life to improving end-of-life care in this community and across the country, and this project, alongside St Elizabeth Hospice, is a significant step toward that goal."This is something we know the community wants and needs. This community hospice building will make a drastic difference to so many people, improving local end-of-life care, giving people more options and support during their precious remaining time with loved ones." Ms Newman added: "We are delighted to submit this planning application and share our full plans with the wider community."With the invaluable support of Roberta Lovick and the Louise Hamilton Trust, we are in a strong position to develop the community hospice sustainably in a single phase."Ed Garratt, chief executive at Norfolk and Waveney ICB (N&W ICB), said: "This is a hugely welcome development, which aligns with our ambitions to enhance palliative and end-of-life care in our region."I wholeheartedly support this shared commitment from the voluntary sector, NHS and community in working together to improve services for the local population." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
