When time is short, it’s often the little things that make the biggest difference.
One patient’s ambulance transfer from Derriford Hospital to St Luke’s specialist unit at Turnchapel last week turned into a very precious journey indeed when the crew took a detour to grant her wish for one last look at the sea she loves.
St Luke’s iconic Midnight Walk is back for 2024, shining a light on precious memories of lost loved ones while supporting our compassionate care.
Scarecrows, penguins and traffic cones…our Men’s Day Out has seen it all. That is until now. A group of men from Plymouth will be bringing a touch of adrenaline to the day as they will be doing the walk dressed as a rollercoaster.
Bee and Vicky from St Luke’s urgent care service were thrilled to cut the ribbon to officially open Roger Young’s new Suzuki showroom in Saltash on Monday and thank the company for their generous support.
A stunning selection of gardens in West Devon, the South Hams and East Cornwall will be opening their gates once again in aid of local hospice care.
St Luke’s annual Open Gardens scheme is launching in March, providing avid horticulture fans the opportunity to explore amazing private plots, large and small, many not usually open to the public, while supporting our end of life care in your local community. All proceeds from the ticket sales will be playing a vital role in helping us to meet the rising costs of our dedicated care teams offering free specialist hospice care, when and where it is needed.
This year’s programme, running through to September and kindly sponsored by NFU Mutual Plymouth, promises plenty of inspiration for keen gardeners, as well as a proper treat for anyone who enjoys a fresh air outing in a beautiful environment.
Wayne Marshall, St Luke’s Open Gardens Co-ordinator, said: “We are really excited to kickstart the 2024 Open Gardens season. We have chosen a diverse selection of beautiful gardens to inspire and delight, many of which are not normally open to the public, so offer a unique insight into garden design.
“This year we are honoured and delighted that the highly successful local artist and St Luke’s patron, Brian Pollard has kindly created such an enchanting image for the cover of our Open Gardens brochure.
“Excitingly, Brian has generously donated to St Luke’s the framed original acrylic painting and we are including it as an amazing prize in our Open Gardens raffle, so be sure to buy your tickets when you visit one of the gardens.”
The artwork is currently on display at Kaya Gallery, Plymouth where you can also buy raffle tickets for either £1 or £5 for a book.
Stretching from the outskirts of Plymouth right across our catchment area in the South Hams, Dartmoor, West Devon and just over the border into Cornwall – from Kingsbridge to Lewdown, there will be a varied selection of popular gardens opening during the season alongside some exciting new additions, including the beautifully unique The Garden House in Yelverton on Thursday 18 April and Wednesday 14 August and Highwell in Churchstow, offering five acres of wonderful garden spaces on Sunday 12 May.
Highlights of the season include a special Easter Sunday opening of Gnaton Hall, near Yealmpton and a familiar favourite of the landscaped grounds of the Grade One listed Flete House, near Ermington, which will be opening on Sunday 28 July between 12pm and 5pm.
There’s no need to book in advance for any of the gardens – just turn up on the allotted date and time and follow the orange St Luke’s signs to car parking and the gardens themselves and pay on the gate with cash or contactless card; tickets cost £6 and under-16s have free entry.
Once again we will be working in partnership with the team at Drake’s Island to provide guided tours. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Plymouth Sound, Drake’s Island boasts unique views across Cornwall, the city and beyond. Funds from the ticket sales will go to St Luke’s, apart from a small booking fee. Tickets will be available exclusively here.
Wayne added: “As a charity, we couldn’t survive without the kindness of all our supporters. This includes everyone who attends our Open Gardens, the big-hearted garden owners who welcome them, and not forgetting our proud sponsors NFU Mutual Plymouth. Together over the last 14 years that the scheme has been running, more than £540,000 has been raised for our patient care, which is incredible, thank you.”
You can pick up a copy of our Open Gardens 2024 brochure and view the full list of gardens on offer at any of our charity shops, at local garden centres and supporting businesses, or you can download it online here.
Nick Thomas, a highly experienced NHS senior manager, has been announced as the new chair of St Luke’s Board of Trustees.
The retired deputy CEO of University Hospitals Plymouth is passionate about quality and believes St Luke’s has a pivotal role to play in raising the standards of end of life care across the wider local system, while maintaining its own well established commitment to service excellence.
He takes over the voluntary role from Charles Hackett, who had been chair since December 2022 and previously served as a member of the board for five years.
“It is a massive privilege to take on a role such as this because St Luke’s has such a huge reputation,” said Nick, who has enjoyed a rich career encompassing multiple aspects of health and care at UHP, including planning, IT, estates and finance.
“You can stop almost anyone on the street in Plymouth and they will have a story to tell about St Luke’s and it’s always positive, which is remarkable. I cannot think of a more prestigious charity to be involved with.”
Originally from Llanelli in South Wales, Nick has lived and worked in Devon for nearly 30 years, becoming part of the community in Ivybridge and in Plympton, where he and his wife now live.
He first came across St Luke’s in the late 1990s as part of a Common Purpose development initiative for board level managers, building a network around how Plymouth is run as a city through core areas like housing and health.
“That is when I first discovered the impact the work of St Luke’s has on end of life care. Then, during my time at Derriford, I became much more aware of St Luke’s.
“At a workshop to discuss health care of the elderly, virtually every example of best practice in end of life care related to St Luke’s; which is remarkable.”
Over the years his attention has returned again and again to the importance of end of life care and a deepening appreciation St Luke’s values around death and dying.
A very personal experience shone the spotlight even further on the importance of everyone having the chance of a “good death”.
“When my father-in-law was coming towards the end of his life he was admitted into hospital. They said he was responding well to treatment and gave the impression he was getting better. No one mentioned the ‘d’ word.
“When I pulled the doctor aside and asked what the prognosis was, he said my father-in-law might recover from his current infection, but then there would be another and maybe another and eventually he would run out of physiological reserve and die. I remember thinking that we need to talk in a different way about this and not give false hope on the premise that it is somehow ‘kinder’. My mother-in-law needed to prepare herself mentally for the inevitable and this sort of ‘kindness’ simply delayed the inevitable reality.
“A pathway coordinator said that he would be discharged into residential care, adding, ‘I’m sorry, but he’s not close enough to death for St Luke’s’. I’m not sure what that meant, but he died a week later.
“I think part of St Luke’s responsibility is to show what good looks like and help others to attain those heights.”
An accountant by training, Nick has most recently been involved in making business cases and business plans and putting commercial projects together.
He believes his experience chairing two other local charities: the Eddystone Trust supporting people with HIV and other blood viruses and Plymouth Access to Housing working with the homeless and people at risk of becoming homeless, will stand him in good stead at St Luke’s.
His other experience includes being a non-executive director at Plymouth Science Park, a member of the Scan4Safety and Quality Improvement national advisory boards, treasurer of Elfordleigh Golf Club and board advisor to Plymouth CIC Engaged Communities.
Trustee and deputy chair Martin Walker said: “All the trustees were delighted to formally approve Nick’s appointment as our new chair. During his application and interview, his leadership skills, charisma and broad experience stood out. Nick brings a wealth of experience from senior NHS management roles, commercial projects, and several positions in the charitable sector. We all look forward to working with him in the years ahead.”
Outgoing chair Charles Hackett added: “I can’t think of a better person to succeed me as chair of the board. Nick is fully in tune with the organisation’s values and the bigger picture of what St Luke’s incredible expertise and strong reputation can offer the broader healthcare system in Plymouth and beyond, and passionate about quality of care.”
Do you work in health and social care? If so, we need your views to help shape how our services will look over the next three years.
At St Luke’s, we design our specialist care and support around the ever-changing needs of our patients and their families, and the contribution we can make as a partner in the wider health and social care system. Our community is so important to us, we trust and value your views and want to provide a service that suits you.
We’re putting together our three-year strategy. Would you help us get this right by taking part in our survey, answering key questions about what we do now and how we could best develop in the future? We will listen to all your feedback, together with that of patients and their families as well as our staff and volunteers.
Thank you so much – we really appreciate your insight and time.
Complete the survey here: https://forms.office.com/e/VYi687EHSA
When accounts assistant Lewis Kendall posed for a photo in his gown and mortarboard outside Exeter Cathedral recently, it wasn’t only his long-awaited college graduation he was celebrating.
The occasion also marked the official end of his time as a St Luke’s apprentice and acknowledged his role as a fully-fledged, permanent member of our Finance Team.
This week is National Apprenticeships Week (5-11 February), a chance to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make to individuals, businesses and the wider economy.
Lewis, from Plympton, is now a proud ambassador for St Luke’s apprenticeships, speaking up about how they allow you to learn on the job as well as support you to study for relevant qualifications.
It proved to be the perfect option for the 27-year-old who was thrilled to find an alternative route into his chosen field of finance and accountancy.
He explained: “I didn’t really know what to do after A levels. I got three Bs in Maths, History and Business and went to university at Swansea for a while. I liked the course and the subject, but I didn’t get along with the university style of teaching, so I decided to come home and work for a bit.
“If someone had told me at the time that there was a really good apprenticeship scheme, rather than going to university, then I would have jumped at that.”
Lewis struck lucky when he spotted an advertisement in May 2019 for a finance apprentice at St Luke’s.
“I had a really good interview and was taken on by St Luke’s as part of the finance team, with a day of study leave each week to work towards professional qualifications with the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) through Exeter College.
“I would definitely recommend apprenticeships. I liked the way I could be taught on day release because you are not just studying, you have work responsibilities too. You pick up practical skills in the workplace – stuff that you would not learn in the classroom. I also felt really supported, not like Uni where you can feel like you are on your own.
“And because St Luke’s were so generous in paying for my course, I felt a good pressure to do well.”
Lewis did do really well in his Level 2 and 3 AAT studies, despite having to study mostly online because of Covid restrictions, so St Luke’s gave him the opportunity to carry on to Level 4 – the top AAT qualification.
“This time I had to travel up to Exeter every Wednesday and St Luke’s were kind enough to cover the cost of my fuel, and in January this year I heard that I’d passed Level 4.”
The icing on the cake was the chance to receive his certificates at a graduation ceremony at Exeter Cathedral last month, watched by his mum and dad and his girlfriend, Eloise.
“It was a great day celebrating achieving my qualifications. My mum and dad were really proud, especially because I had previously withdrawn from university.”
Numbers might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Lewis loves them and he’s proud to be part of a background team that is absolutely essential to the smooth running of the organisation.
“We are quite an unseen specialist team that makes sure the hospice is financially stable,” he explained. “I think the best thing is knowing that the hard work that we put in helps support the services that all the people at front of house provide – our care teams, our fundraising team, our shops.”
Before qualifying Lewis’s role was mostly dealing with day to day income and financial queries around donations, working closely with fundraising and supporter care.
“My team is great. St Luke’s recognised my qualification and experience and had a reshuffle so I could have a place in the finance management side of the organisation.”
As a fully qualified Accounts Assistant he spends more time now working with Management Accountant Nicola Willcocks.
“The work I do now is really satisfying in that we are dealing with lots of income and expenditure, putting together all the backroom financial information, helping the management accounts team make decisions about, and analyse, budgets.
“But I don’t just sit at a desk and play with numbers. I like talking people through the numbers if they need any help with that. Giving them all the information they need enables them to make decisions. I gather the data that helps inform those decisions.”
Underpinning everything Lewis does at St Luke’s is a sense of pride in the organisation.
“St Luke’s provides such a unique and great service. I live in Plympton, and it feels good to see our cars going out to see patients, knowing that our team helps to make that happen. It’s wonderful that people in the community look so fondly on St Luke’s and get so excited about fundraising for us.”
When he can, Lewis likes to help out at some of St Luke’s flagship fundraising events.
“Volunteering at Midnight Walk is probably one of my favourite things to do. It’s great to see so many people who are working a full day and then are prepared to walk miles around Plymouth until two in the morning to raise money for St Luke’s. I do the donations side, making sure the money collected gets safely back to Turnchapel. And I am there afterwards giving out tea, coffee, prosecco and chocolates.
“It’s great being sat at a computer with the numbers but actually seeing people out like that is wonderful. It fills you with pride.”
Outside work, Lewis lives at Chaddlewood with Eloise, and in his spare time he’s a keen golfer and one of the current captains of Thurlestone Golf Club.
“I absolutely love it. St Luke’s was the club’s charity of the year last year, which was wonderful – they raised a lot of money for the organisation.”
As a hospice, St Luke’s can offer a number of different apprenticeships like Lewis’ to both internal and external candidates. Apprenticeships can range from administration to events management, retail logistics to health and social care, roles in finance to leadership and management. We pride ourselves on ensuring that all our apprentices are part of the St Luke’s family benefiting from our values and support.
If like Lewis, you would be interested in an apprenticeship at St Luke’s you can find out more here.
If there’s one gift you can give us over this new year, it’s five minutes of your time to share your thoughts about our services.
We’re proud of the compassionate end of life care we provide for our patients and their families. But we’re always seeking to improve and make sure we’re meeting the needs of our local community, where progressive frailty is overtaking cancer as a major factor in our ageing population.
That’s why we’d like your feedback as we look ahead to the kind of services that we should be providing over the next three years. Whether you’ve had experience of St Luke’s care, you support us through fundraising or you’re a customer in our shops, your opinion matters to us.
Would you answer a few key questions to confirm that we’re heading in the right direction?
As a thank you, we ran a draw to win tickets to a Plymouth Argyle match of your choice and we are pleased to announce the winner is Peter Wilson. Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey already.
Have your say and make a difference: https://forms.office.com/e/BgfJJ7k2wV
St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth’s end of life Urgent Care Team ventured across the Tamar last week to visit their first patient at home in East Cornwall as part of a pilot service running until the end of March 2024.
We followed senior health care assistant Bee Daniels and nurse Jo Davis as they went to meet a very grateful Paul Treeby and his daughter, Jude Kitt.
It’s less than half a kilometre from one side to the other but crossing the Tamar Bridge represented a significant milestone for St Luke’s pilot East Cornwall Urgent Care Service.
Until last week it had been a bridge too far for the hospice’s “at home” teams who already clock up more than 80,000 miles a year taking our specialist care to the doorsteps of patients in Plymouth and surrounding areas of West and South Devon.
In a ground-breaking move, a four-month trial service has been launched to visit end of life patients and their families at home in a largely rural stretch from Saltash to Torpoint and the Rame Peninsula, up the Tamar Valley towards Callington and Launceston and across to Liskeard.
Patients in this area have benefited from St Luke’s care at Derriford Hospital and in the charity’s specialist unit at Turnchapel, but there has previously been no service available to support them either to remain at home or to care for them on discharge from hospital.
Senior healthcare assistant Bee and nurse Jo were thrilled and proud to be pioneers on a mission to make a positive difference to people’s lives, working closely with NHS healthcare colleagues across the water.
“The whole team are really excited to go there,” said Bee, in the driving seat as they passed the Welcome to Cornwall sign in the centre of the bridge. “It’s another big area for us to cover and it’s going to be a lot more rural nursing, but we’re all up for the challenge.”
That stalwart can-do attitude certainly came in handy as they turned off the A38 to snake through the Cornish countryside to meet Paul Treeby, the team’s first patient on the service’s first day.
Beneath bleak black clouds and intermittent heavy downpours, Bee drove carefully, bumping along increasingly muddy lanes until she hit Tarmac with grass growing down the middle, her view hemmed in by high hedges on either side.
Suddenly a beautiful rainbow and a glimmer of blue sky appeared in the distance beckoning Bee and Jo to one of the small farming communities that pepper the hinterlands between Liskeard and Callington.
“It’s a typical journey, really,” said Jo. “We’re based in the city, but we have a lot of isolated people to visit out in the countryside. We keep going come rain or shine, grass or gravel!”
St Luke’s Urgent Care is a healthcare assistant led service, so Jo wouldn’t normally be out visiting patients herself, except when there’s an urgent need for her nursing expertise.
“I put myself down for the first shift so that I can see what the challenges are and support the team while they are getting used to the area,” she explained.
With the satnav out of range, they managed to arrive in roughly the right place, but Paul’s tucked-away home wasn’t easy to find in the pouring rain, despite his instructions. Luckily, he lives in a friendly hamlet where everyone knows everyone, and hardy folk who walk their dogs in all weathers were eager to point Bee in the right direction.
There was an almost palpable sense of relief as Paul’s daughter, Jude Kitt, opened the door of her father’s bungalow and, along with black Labrador Harvey, welcomed Bee and Jo inside.
Any apprehension Paul had felt before their arrival vanished immediately as they asked him gently about himself, how he was feeling and what they could do to help.
“We build a rapport with patients very, very quickly,” explained Jo. “Going in on a daily basis you can quickly see how someone is and if there is escalation of symptoms you can deal with that. The patient can get what they need from us in a timely manner. We make sure everything is as easy as possible.”
Their role is also to liaise with the other health professionals involved in his care, including his GP and the NHS Cornwall palliative care nurse who gives Paul and Jude advice over the phone.
Paul, 75, has been living with prostate cancer for 10 years. After an operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he was put on long-term chemotherapy to control the disease. But, in July this year – just a month after his dear wife Elizabeth’s death from leukaemia – Paul’s oncology team told him that the treatment had run its course and there was nothing more they could do.
It means the world to him to now be able to spend his remaining time at home in the community he knows and loves, with reassuring support from St Luke’s.
“I’ve been a country lad all my life. I was brought up on the farm. I was born at Blunts, down the road. Dad was killed in a tractor accident and Mother had three of us to look after so she took a job as a housekeeper for another farm at Menheniot. That was tough, but you just got on with it. When I was old enough, I went out to work and started digger driving, which I loved,” he said.
Paul and Elizabeth brought up their family on a smallholding near Trewidland – a tiny hamlet between Liskeard and Looe – and he made a living operating diggers for several local companies.
“We had around 40 acres and kept sheep through the winter and cut hay in summer. When we couldn’t cope with that any more, my son Tim took it on and bought us this bungalow to retire to.”
Paul was quick to praise Bee and Jo at the end of their visit.
“I was very impressed with St Luke’s team. It’s good to have them coming in to help me with any problems I’ve got. I think it will be a big benefit having them down here in Cornwall,” he said. “I think it’s something that’s got to be done. There’s a massive demand.
“They came in and made me feel at home. They talked about my tablets, and they took me in to have a wash. It was all very relaxed and no stress. That suits me down to the ground because I don’t do well with stress. That’s why I wouldn’t want to go back to hospital again.”
Jude, who lives four miles away at Pensilva, has been juggling her own family life with caring for her dad, with no real chance to grieve for her mother, who was the first person she would usually have talked things through with.
“It feels like a huge relief already. Dad deserves the best care and now we have got somebody coming every day who can help us. I feel like I have a team behind me now,” she said.
“The main thing is the continuation of people coming in so they will get to know Dad and recognise any day to day deterioration. I feel like it’s all been on me, and it’s been a bit overwhelming at times.”
Jo added: “There must be a lot of families who have been struggling up until now and it’s good to be able to tell them there is help on the way.”
The final word goes to Bee, who said: “Dying is a massive part of life. Everyone deserves to have the best death they can have, and we can help with that journey.”
