Suffolk’s two adult hospices have teamed up to launch Hospice Care Week 2012, with the aim of dispelling the myths around the services they provide.
During the second annual awareness week St Elizabeth Hospice and St Nicholas Hospice Care will be highlighting how they reach out to and support the many different communities they serve – providing care which emphasises living, not dying.
The week-long campaign, from October 8 to 14, is called Hospice Care, Be Surprised and is being supported by the East Anglian Daily Times and Radio Suffolk.
During the week St Elizabeth Hospice, which provides services for people in East Suffolk and South East Norfolk, and St Nicholas Hospice Care, which provides services for people in West Suffolk and Thetford, will be asking people from across the county to pledge their support.
Whether they have a connection to the hospices or not, they want to know why hospice care is important to them and are asking everyone to say something about themselves and pledge ‘I am hospice care’.
They can show their support online through Twitter and Facebook or in person, at the hospices, at hospice shops across the county and at various Hospice Care Week events in the community.
Jane Petit, Chief Executive of St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “We realise that speaking about hospices can be a difficult subject. We aim to break that taboo by highlighting the wide-ranging ways we help people in East Suffolk and South East Norfolk living with any progressive illness, not just cancer.
“St Elizabeth Hospice staff and volunteers will be out and about all week raising awareness of the ways we help patients to live well until they die and support their families too.”
Hospice Care Week is a national initiative organised by Help the Hospices, the charity for hospice care.
David Praill, chief executive of Help the Hospices, the UK charity for hospice care, said: “This Hospice Care Week we want to show local communities that together, we are all hospice care.”
Get involved: ‘I am hospice care’
Together, we are all hospice care – from those who support, volunteer and work in partnership with their local hospices to the patients, friends and family who rely on them.
This Hospice Care Week, St Elizabeth Hospice and St Nicholas Hospice Care are asking people to declare: “I am hospice care.”
Whether you have a connection to the Hospices or not, it is easy for you to pledge your support for Hospice Care Week by saying something about yourself and declaring ‘I am Hospice Care’, for example: ‘I am Adam. I am Hospice Care’, ‘I am a mum. I am hospice care’, or ‘I want to help. I am Hospice Care’.
Whether you have a connection to St Elizabeth Hospice or St Nicholas Hospice Care or not, tell us something about yourself and pledge your support during Hospice Care Week.
It’s easy to get involved:
Hold up an ‘I am hospice care’ sign with your message of support, and tweet them to: @StElizabethHosp or @stnichhosp
Or, upload them to our Facebook pages: St Elizabeth Hospice or St Nicholas Hospice Care.
Meet St Elizabeth Hospice staff and volunteers
Today(Mon Oct 8)
• Asda Stoke Park, Ipswich 9am-5pm
• UCS, Ipswich 10am-3pm
• The Crown pub, Southwold 11am-2pm
Tuesday
• St Elizabeth Hospice shop, Stowmarket, 11am-1pm
• St Elizabeth Hospice shop, Framlingham, 2pm-4pm
• Outside Tesco’s Felixstowe, 10am-2pm
Wednesday
• Halesworth library 10.30am-12.30pm
• Hotel Victoria, Lowestoft, business networking lunch 12 noon-2pm
• Outside Debenhams, Ipswich, 10am-4pm