Since launching in April 2019, more than 3,700 patients and their families in Great Yarmouth and Waveney have been supported by the free specialist palliative care provided by the joint partnership of St Elizabeth East Coast Hospice and ECCH.
Typically living with conditions such as cancer, heart failure, chronic lung diseases – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – and neurological disorders, these patients have received free care through the partnership’s varied, specialist palliative care provision available at Beccles Hospital, in the community and through the service’s 24-hour advice line, OneCall.
This care is made possible by the staff from the hospice and ECCH but also by more than 100 volunteers who generously give their time to support the service. These volunteers provide their help in many ways, including supporting fundraising events, working in the administration teams, providing assistance to clinical staff and working in retail shops throughout the area.
One St Elizabeth East Coast Hospice volunteer is Charlotte Clark (pictured making a donation to the hospice), who has supported the charity through fundraising and volunteering, at a number of events, since 2018.
“St Elizabeth East Coast Hospice were brilliant in the care they gave my friend Marion in her final days, they made things so much easier for her with their excellent support. Since then I have been trying to help the hospice in any way I could so that other people can receive similar support,” explained Charlotte, who is also Executive Library Manager at Southwold Library.
“Over the years I have helped with the open gardens during the charity’s annual Great Garden Trail, helped during bucket collections and taken part during fundraising quiz nights.
“As well as this, I have been a volunteer trailmaker for a number of the hospice’s Wild in Art trails, including Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk in 2019 and the Big Hoot Ipswich 2022 – they are such fun to be a part of and they bring great creativity to Suffolk through such a colourful event.
“The work St Elizabeth East Coast Hospice does, in the Ipswich area as well as Great Yarmouth and Waveney, is so important and to be able to support them in fun ways, is absolutely brilliant.
“I even took part in the hospice’s first organised fundraising challenge event in Great Yarmouth and Waveney back in 2021, when I completed the Firewalk at Old Hall Café & Walks in Southwold.
“There are so many ways you can volunteer and support the hospice and bizarre activities such as crossing barefoot over a 15ft path of red-hot embers, at over 500°C, can be one of them!
“While in 2022, I was so pleased to raise over £1,000 for the hospice as part of the Big Hoot’s Little Hoot. We did this, at Southwold Library, by selling kindly-donated owl-themed crafts – including some wonderful knitted cushions. We also had a guess the name of the owl competition, a couple of owl-themed quiz sheets to buy, guess the number of owls in the jar, an owl-themed lucky dip and two quiz nights.
“I am so proud to volunteer and support such an important local cause which delivers vital care to so many throughout Suffolk.”
To learn more about volunteering opportunities at St Elizabeth East Coast Hospice email volunteer@stelizabethhospice.org.uk or visit www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk/support-us/support-us/volunteer-for-us/.
Further information about the partnership’s services in Great Yarmouth and Waveney can found by visiting www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk/how-we-can-help/hospice-care/great-yarmouth_and-waveney