A daughters love of the sea and memories of her father paved the way for an inspiring challenge.
Back in July 2022, Beth Tindall-Jones’ father spent his final week at our specialist unit, receiving care after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Now, two years on, Beth and her two friends Ellie and Ellen completed the challenging Breakwater swim last weekend in aid of St Luke’s and in memory of Beth’s father.
Weathering the storm together is at the heart of the compassionate care St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth offers patients and their families, and that was exactly the spirit embraced by the 1,100 warm-hearted supporters who strode out on the charity’s sellout Midnight Walk on Friday night.
Heavy rain showers and some spectacular puddles couldn’t deter the excited and emotional crowd from pounding the city’s streets in memory of much-missed friends and family members, raising vital funds for the end-of-life services St Luke’s provides in people’s own homes and its own inpatient unit.
An impromptu taxi tour to places that hold special childhood memories was exactly the nostalgia trip St Luke’s patient Steve Wright wanted after weeks of feeling too weak and cautious to leave the house.
Spending time in the sunshine on the waterfront at Devonport, showing his wife, Bute, the places he loved when he was a little boy made him feel “like I’d won the lottery”.
“St Luke’s took the reins we didn’t know how to steer and guided us with gentle hands right through to the very end.”
Like many of the walkers taking part in our Midnight Walk on Friday, Danielle Craig, a Learning Support Practitioner at Duchy College, will be taking on the walk in memory of someone special, her late husband Lee.
It was Lynette Ball’s dearest wish to witness her son, Stuart, marry his partner, Amy. But with a terminal diagnosis and Lynette’s health deteriorating rapidly, time was running short.
That’s when the St Luke’s nursing team caring for the 60-year-old mother and grandmother at her home on Plymouth’s Barbican pulled out all the stops to make her dream come true.
Halfway up a wild and wet Mount Snowdon, George Fletcher felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find a little girl aged around seven or eight waiting to hand him a £10 note.
She wasn’t the first or last to approach the 85-year-old from Ivybridge as he embraced the enormous challenge of climbing the highest mountain in Wales, accompanied by his son Marc, and family friend Mark Buckham, to raise funds for St Luke’s.
As modest as he is kind, Andy Campbell would never describe himself as a ‘hospice hero’, but having reached the milestone of 35 years’ dedicated service with St Luke’s – making him the team’s longest serving current employee – it’s a title that could not be more deserved.
Halfway up a wild and wet Mount Snowdon, George Fletcher felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find a little girl aged around seven or eight waiting to hand him a £10 note.
She wasn’t the first or last to approach the 85-year-old from Ivybridge as he embraced the enormous challenge of climbing the highest mountain in Wales, accompanied by his son Marc, and family friend Mark Buckham, to raise funds for St Luke’s.
Behind the doors of St Luke’s you will find an intricate web of volunteers keeping our charity running.
This week is Volunteers’ Week (3-9 June), a chance to celebrate the wonderful team of volunteers that keep the cogs of St Luke’s turning. From working in our fleet of shops, to volunteering at our specialist unit, our volunteers are the backbone of our organisation.
“I truly believe that it was the care of St Luke’s that gave my dad the chance to meet his grandson and have six precious weeks with him.”
For every patient we care for, there are family or loved ones going through the unimaginable. Which is why memory making is so important to us. We want to give our patients the chance to live until they die, making precious memories with loved ones.
Jade Moore will be taking part in our Midnight Walk on Friday 12 July in memory of her father, Stuart Moore who died in September last year after being diagnosed with tonsil cancer.
