Family's heartfelt plea to save Exeter's Hospiscare

This Christmas, as families come together to celebrate, one family is making a heartfelt plea for help: to save the hospice that allowed them to share a final Christmas with their mother.

Louise Beeken has a strong connection with Hospiscare, the local hospice charity for Exeter, Central and East Devon, after working in its fundraising team for 20 years.

Louise explained: “Through my work I felt I understood the impact of our care. However, it was not until I experienced it first hand with my own mum, Ann, that I truly understood the value of everything we do for patients and their families.”

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In August 2023, Ann received the devastating diagnosis of advanced bowel cancer that had spread to her liver. After weeks of treatment, it was clear that Ann was deteriorating. Louise and her brother were taking it in turns to stay with their parents to help Ann with her daily needs. A further round of tests revealed the worst – the cancer was not responding to the immunotherapy and Ann and her family were referred to Hospiscare.

“My mum was a real character – she loved her family, adored her grandchildren and had a wicked sense of humour,” Louise said. “I can’t quite describe the level of fear when someone you love is deteriorating in front of your eyes. Hospiscare gave us our Mum back when we felt we were rapidly losing her.

“Mum adored giving presents on Christmas Day and it was really important to my dad that we were all together for one last Christmas. Hospiscare gave our family the greatest gift: one last Christmas with Mum.”

Sarah Ingham, advanced nurse practitioner at Hospiscare, cared for Ann at her home and has spoken out about the “heartbreaking” financial situation the hospice faces.

Hospiscare receives just 15% of its funding from the Government and after declaring a £2.5 million funding deficit in November 2023, the hospice was forced to reduce the number of beds on its specialist ward by a quarter and cut its weekend services in the community from April 2024.

Sarah explains: “Access to vital care is being reduced because of rising costs and lack of equitable government funding. We can no longer see patients at the weekend in the community.

“Despite these challenges, we are still dedicated to providing expert, compassionate care for individuals with terminal diagnoses. We cannot lengthen someone’s life but by truly listening to the patient and their families, we can give expert, compassionate care tailored to them.”

Louise concludes: “If we weren’t referred to Hospiscare when we were, the final weeks of Mum’s life would have been very different. She would have been admitted to the hospital as an emergency and most likely would have spent Christmas there. We take comfort in knowing that her final weeks were how she wanted, that we were able to give her a good death at home and we couldn’t have done that without the expertise of Hospiscare.

“We absolutely cannot lose this service, so please, if you feel able to make a donation, you will be giving the greatest gift to families like ours at Christmas.”

To make a gift to Hospiscare this Christmas, visit www.hospiscare.co.uk/caring-at-christmas.