Thanks to your generosity, we don’t have far to go to hit our £10,000 appeal target for Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland.
The hospice provides a vital service to the community and is not funded by the NHS – that’s why every penny counts.
Please donate to our appeal – it doesn’t matter how much you give, your donation will help make a difference to someone in their hour of need.
Families across the district have turned to Hospice at Home when they need support the most – like Dorothy Chapelhow’s family.
When Dorothy Chapelhow died in December, support from Hospice at Home nurses allowed her to be surrounded by her loving family in her final hours — something COVID restrictions would have prevented had she stayed in hospital.
Dorothy founded A J & D Chapelhow — manufacturers of timber windows and doors at Cliburn — with her husband Alan, and lived in Cliburn for more than 60 years. She died on 6th December, aged 81, following a long battle with ovarian cancer.
At the time of her death, coronavirus restrictions meant the family were unable to visit her in hospital, but thanks to Hospice at Home Dorothy was able to return home to spend her final weeks with her loved ones.
Dorothy’s husband Alan, their daughter Helen Law and granddaughters Sarah and Lisa Law, have all spoken of their gratitude to the charity and their support for the £10,000 fundraising campaign.
Sarah said their experience with Hospice at Home began after she had been turned down for help from numerous private carers and organisations due to their rural location and companies being overstretched.
Desperate for help they turned to Hospice at Home which agreed to provide Dorothy with end of life palliative care, enabling her to be taken home from Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary.
Nurses from the charity visited Dorothy and Alan’s Cliburn home morning and night to help care for her and support the family. The service they provided included everything for her general wellbeing – changing her clothes and bedding, washing her and doing everything they could to make her comfortable.
As time went on, Hospice at Home nurses also came for overnight stints, giving the family a chance of much-needed rest. Along with helping Dorothy, they supported the family as a whole.
Daughter Helen said: “It gave us support and the knowledge that people knew a lot more than us and if we had a problem or concern we could explain it to them and they would understand and know what to do. The nurses were excellent — nothing was a problem and they always seemed to understand what we needed.
“If she hadn’t been able to come home we wouldn’t have been able to spend that time with her.
“They gave us much needed respite by caring at night which gave us a break so we could care for her as well as we could through the day,” granddaughter Lisa added.
Please support this vital work and donate to our fundraising appeal here
