To mark Hospice Care Week this week (7^th-13^th October), Cynthia Spencer Hospice has launched a campaign to highlight the importance of palliative care and the dedication of hospice staff.

The Two Sides to Every Story campaign focuses on stories from both families who have experienced the hospice and the incredible staff who work there, showing exactly what hospice care is all about – people living life to the full until the very end.

As part of the campaign, the daughter of a women who spent her final days at Cynthia Spencer Hospice during the pandemic has described the nurses who cared for her mother as “angels in uniform”.

The Northampton-based end of life care facility provided palliative care for lung cancer patient Hilary Seal, who died aged 75 during the start of the Covid lockdown in 2020.

Her daughter Mandy Colby has since praised the “absolutely superb” nursing staff who looked after Hilary and acted as a much-valued go-between when the family were unable to visit due to lockdown restrictions.

Hilary was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer after suffering with a persistent cough that got worse over time.

As a smoker, she hadn’t realised the extent of the problem until her family insisted she saw a doctor. Tragically, when she was diagnosed there were no treatment options available.

Hilary, who had previously survived breast cancer, was given less than a year to live.

Following her diagnosis, Hilary visited Cynthia Spencer Hospice a number of times for respite care and far outlived her prognosis. Hilary passed away on 4^th April 2020 at the hospice.

Mandy said: “They used to call my mum an enigma because she didn’t follow the plan like other cancer patients.

“She lived with cancer for two and a half years and she battled until the day she died, but the highs and lows through those two years were immense.

“We were in and out of Cynthia Spencer Hospice four times, so we got to know the nursing staff well – they become part of the family, they were absolutely superb.

“They are phenomenal at what they do and how they look after your loved ones. They’re angels in a nurse’s uniform. Nothing is ever too much trouble.”

Mandy and her sisters visited Hilary regularly and even took the family dogs into the hospice at Hilary’s request, walking around the gardens together.

However, when the Covid pandemic started during Hilary’s fourth and final stay at the hospice, lockdown restrictions meant the family were unable to visit.

Mandy remembers: “They locked us down totally and we weren’t allowed to see her at all.

“We made the best of it and did what we could, but I felt so sorry for the staff. Cynthia Spencer Hospice runs as a family and nobody was going in, which must have been awful for the nursing staff as well.

“One day we jumped in our separate cars, and we parked up at the back gate of the hospice and they turned mum’s bed round so she could see us through the window. That was one of the last times we saw her alive.”

The other side to the story features Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Debbie Quinn, who led a team that ran a dedicated Covid ward at Cynthia Spencer Hospice during the pandemic. Debbie, who has recently published a book about her experience, knows first-hand the difficulties for both families and staff during that time.

She said: “That ward changed all our lives. I think the pandemic changed most of us, didn’t it, but that ward in particular, for all of us on there, gave us something that we were all looking for. We all had a reason for doing it.

“Without people like Cynthia Spencer Hospice we wouldn’t be in the privileged position that we are in, being able to provide the care that we are providing to palliative patients.

“And despite the unprecedented circumstances and having to set up the Covid ward in just three weeks, a lot of people from the charity came to help.

“It was like going back to the old NHS, when everybody helped everybody, and it certainly felt like it brought out the best in everybody.”

To find out more about how you can support Cynthia Spencer Hospice, visit https://cynthiaspencer.org.uk//how-you-can-help-us/