Diana Princess of Wales Care at Home Trust has just presented £20,000 towards the cost of providing the Hospice at Home service in the Isle of Man, as part of its target of £50,000 for 2012, to help provide a dedicated ‘Diana Nurse’ for the service in the Island.
Chairman of the Trust Ron Spencer commented: ‘As ever we continue tirelessly to raise funds, and for 2012 have had fantastic support from Lloyds TSB as one of their annual charities which has been a great boost. We strive to support this invaluable service as much as we can.
‘There’s no doubt that there would appear to be an ever increasing demand for people preferring to die at home but, currently, only less than a quarter actually do so. We will continue our work to try and get somewhere near close to meeting the demand for nursing support.
‘With further work in the remainder of 2012 we’re hoping to achieve the £50k target for this year - we would welcome any offers from companies who might consider us as one of their ‘charities of the year’ for 2013 and beyond.’
Having a dedicated Hospice at Home nurse resource would increase the availability of the service ‘out-of-hours’ and hopefully prevent admission to Hospice’s inpatient unit due to lack of nursing availability when the patient has expressed a preference to remain at home.
Hospice CEO Margaret Simpson thanked the Trust and added that without the Diana Trust‘s support providing a Hospice at Home service would be difficult. Having a dedicated “Diana Nurse” funded by the Trust will make a big difference to patients who would like to be nursed and cared for in their own home rather than being admitted to hospice or hospital. Their families will also benefit from the additional support enabling them to carry on looking after their loved one.
Margaret added: “This generous contribution has made it possible to appoint a part time Diana Nurse who will start in her new role on the 1st November. It is hoped that in future we can increase the hours of Hospice at Home provision from the current 900 each year to at least double this amount.”
Photo caption - left to right, Ralph Thomas, Treasurer - Diana Princess of Wales Care at Home Trust, Christine Bloomer ,Community Services Manager - Hospice Isle of Man, Ron Spencer, Chairman – Diana Trust, Mrs Margaret Simpson, Chief Executive - Hospice Isle of Man; Andrew Thomas – Diana Trust. Photo credit: John Dale.
