This week is Volunteers Week and we’re celebrating all the incredible people who make our care possible! Did you know, the time all our volunteers donate to St John’s Hospice saves us £1.2million!! That’s a huge amount of care, support and compassion we couldn’t give without our volunteers.

Here’s our Chief Executive Sue with a special message to all our wonderful volunteers.

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer or would like to know more, please visit sjhospice.org.uk/volunteer

St John’s Hospice is delighted to announce that it’s education programme Last Days Matter has made the shortlist for this year’s national Charity Awards, the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector.

St John’s Hospice has been shortlisted in the Education and Training for its ‘Last Days Matter project, which is a standalone 3-hour education session to help the community to prepare for palliative and end of life matters. The Charity Awards, which announces its shortlist today (16 May), is the sector’s most highly-regarded excellence recognition scheme and is this year celebrating its 25^th anniversary. All 30 shortlisted charities this year have been judged by an independent panel of sector leaders as having demonstrated best practice in leadership and management, from which other organisations can learn. 

Maddy Bass, director of nursing, St John’s Hospice, said, “Many people feel ill-equipped to deal with the issues around end of life and are worried that they won’t be able to support and care for their loved one as they want to. We also know some people are nervous about starting difficult conversations and others can feel nervous about looking after their loved ones at home if they aren’t a doctor or nurse.

“So, the 3-hour standalone Last Days Matter session was developed by St John’s Hospice with North Lancashire Compassionate Communities and community colleagues to support people without any care or nursing qualifications to help look after their loved ones, be they friends or family.

“The feedback about the session is excellent, to read peoples’ comments about the positive impact of attending Last Days Matter is truly moving. The session is open to all, because palliative and end of life care is relevant to every one of us.”

Sue McGraw, chief executive, St John’s Hospice said, “We are very honoured to have been shortlisted for this award. This nomination is testament to the collaboration between St John’s and the community groups who have supported this work. Last Days Matter is now being taken up by hospices across the country, which shows just how valuable this education is. It was developed with a tiny budget, and we believe our decision to offer it at no charge to participants and other independent hospices was the right one for our charity to make.” 

The 10 category winners, plus the recipients of the Overall Award for Excellence and the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, will be announced at a black-tie dinner on Thursday 3 July, held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

The evening will be hosted by BBC news presenter Asad Ahmad, who will be joined on the night by a host of celebrities, representatives of the shortlisted charities, as well as leaders from Britain’s best known and best loved charities.

Matthew Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media which organises the Charity Awards, congratulated St John’s Hospice on making the highly-coveted shortlist. He said: “For a quarter of a century now, the Charity Awards has been showcasing and celebrating the terrific work of UK charities large and small.

“At a time when the sector is struggling with higher costs, shrinking donations and ever-increasing demand for its work, it is reassuring and inspiring to see the extent and quality of charitable activity that is still going on across the country.

“We offer our heartfelt congratulations to all the charities on this year’s shortlist; we know that times are tough and you should all be very proud of getting this far. We wish St John’s Hospice the best of luck on the night.”

Peter Hugh Smith, chief executive at CCLA, Overall Partner of the Charity Awards, said: “Every year the Charity Awards serve as a moment for the sector to reflect and acknowledge the transformative power of compassion, determination and resilience. The awards amplify the voices of those making a difference, inspiring others to join in creating positive change.

“We’re honoured to renew our role as the Charity Awards’ Overall Partner, championing the remarkable efforts of charities, large and small, right across the UK.”

To find out more about Last Days Matter and to book your place go to: Last Days Matter

Nurses Day 12th May 2025

The nurses of St John’s Hospice are highly skilled experts and leaders, today we say thank you for the difference they make to our patients, their families and loved ones. St John’s wouldn’t be St John’s without them.

“Working at St John’s Hospice is amazing in many ways. Not only do we meet with and care for our lovely patients and their loved ones, both as inpatients and in the Community, but in addition, the entire hospice staff work together to allow us to concentrate on delivering hands on care. We embrace them too as we celebrate Nurses Day – thank you”.

Debbie – Inpatient Ward

“Working as part of the St John’s Hospice at Home team is a privilege – although it is sometimes stressful and sad, we’re always grateful for the overwhelming support of the communities we serve. This job really matters.”

Harriet – Hospice at Home

Thank you to everyone for sharing your kind words and messages to our team on social media!

The grants arm of Nationwide Building Society has kindly gifted £9,788 to St John’s Hospice for its bereavement and family support work. Without this valuable support St John’s would not be able to provide all of the bereavement support the community genuinely needs. Lynne a Specialist Service Consultant at Nationwide, who has been supporting the Hospice for many years now, and who applies for the grants for St John’s, said,

“I am passionate about supporting our local Hospice, and have been successful in numerous grant applications over the years to enable the Hospice to continue to support our community, and will continue to do so in any way I can.”

Medicash Foundation, who support a variety of projects from community healthcare projects to international conservation efforts has very generously awarded a grant to St John’s Hospice for the third time! This means the Medicash Foundation have kindly granted a total of £19,545.

This particular grant of £6,845 has been awarded for Hospice at Home fuel costs to support St John’s work in patients’ homes. This  grant is vital as it will be used to support the transport costs of our Community Nursing and Hospice at Home teams travelling to give palliative and end-of-life care to patients in their own homes 365 days a year, 7 days a week.

Maddy Bass, Director of Nursing and Quality said,

“Approximately 80% of patients prefer to die in their own homes, in familiar surroundings, with their loved ones. This means that the St John’s Community Teams are busier and busier each year. They travel from Grasmere to Garstang, Morecambe to Sedbergh in all weathers so you can imagine the impact of the fuel costs on a small charity like St John’s Hospice. To receive this grant means such a lot to the St John’s team and ultimately the patients and families we all care for, so a big ‘thank you’ to the Medicash Foundation for supporting this vital care.”

E-Prescribing success continues with a specialist e-prescribing drug trolley 

The St John’s Hospice new e-prescription system is now live and is supported by generous funding from The Hospital Saturday Fund. The move from paper prescriptions to online electronic chart was a big change for the team and one they have all worked hard to train for. This new system needed investment in a special e-prescribing trolley to fully support it. 

Why does a ‘simple’ trolley make such a difference? Like many things in life – something may look ‘simple’ but in reality, it isn’t! A specialist trolley needs to hold the computer for e-prescribing so requires a large surface area, it also needs to be able to hold medicines securely yet ensuring they can be accessed. In addition, the trolley needs to be easily manoeuvred around patient beds and visitors without causing disruption and being obtrusive. The inpatient ward team carried out considerable research to find the right trolley to work for the team, the patients and their families.

Essentially, this trolley has helped St John’s move to a much safer system of prescribing and dispensing all medications to patient through electronic-prescribing. Also, as a non-paper-based system, it is safer and more environmentally friendly.

The trolley is absolutely integral to the success of this fundamental new way of delivering medications to patients on the ward. A big thank you to the Hospital Saturday Fund for the funding for this trolley – it is working beautifully in its support of this new way of delivering medications to patients.

Emma Dixon, Head of In-patient Services 

St John’s is very grateful to have received £1000 funding from the Lancaster Community Fund (Lancaster City Council and LDCVS) to purchase two new virtual reality headsets. These fantastic devices are now being used on our inpatient ward, with our community team and with our day therapies team with patients and families.

The VR headsets are great for enhancing the emotional and psychological wellbeing of those in our care, providing new and exciting experiences as well providing access to experiences that they might not be able to have due to limited mobility or illness.

These additional headsets will allow more of our patients and families to have and share these new experiences.

In our Friday Drop-In with the Day Therapies team one patient in particular had always wanted to visit Bora Bora. Now that this can no longer happen as they are too unwell, the VR Headset gave them an experience they though they would never get.

One of our Clinal Nurse Specialists who has used our VR with patients says she has seen it to “improve pain management, allow for moments of thrills and achieve ‘bucket list’ opportunities”.

As part of the national ‘This is Hospice Care’ campaign we are encouraging supporters to protect the future of hospice care through a gift in their Will.

This is because St John’s Hospice receives just 25% of its funding from the NHS, the remaining 75% comes from people like you in the community. Currently 1 in 4 patients treated by St John’s Hospice are cared for through funds from gifts in Wills.

But what exactly is a Will, why is important to have one and how do you go about sorting one?

Listen into this episode of our Hospice Podcast: ‘Realities of Making a Will’ for an easy to understand guide to your Wills questions with Liz Edmundson, our Wills and Legacies Relationship Manager. Click the play button the box below to listen now.

The Hospice Podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Our amazing staff talk about the brilliant work they do throughout the hospice and out in the community.

Listen into the full series on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PodBean, Amazon Music and PlayerFM.

Would you like to know more about Wills and leaving a gift in your Will? Visit our Wills Page for lots of useful information.

And if you would like to speak to Liz about Wills and Gifts, please use the contact form below:

Wills Enquiry Form

St John’s Hospice is proud to be one of 143 hospices taking part in the national “This is Hospice Care” campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the vital role hospices play in communities and to answer some of the myths about hospice care.

The national campaign, launched 17 February, is capturing hearts and minds through a powerful TV advert based on real life hospice stories. The goal is to encourage people to consider leaving a gift in their Will to support their local hospice, ensuring that these essential services can continue to provide these compassionate and specialist services now and for future generations.

Sue McGraw, our chief executive said;

“We are excited to be part of this campaign that highlights the critical work we do and the lasting impact that gifts in Wills have on our ability to continue providing St Johns care in the Hospice and in patients’ homes.

“Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, legacy giving cares for one in four of our patients across the area. St John’s provides end of life and palliative care from Grasmere and Kendal down to Garstang, and everywhere between Morecambe and Sedbergh, that’s 500 square miles of St John’s care 24/7, 365 days a year for nearly 40 years.

“Although our care is freely given, it is not without cost. Unlike the NHS we are not fully state funded. Currently the local NHS funds 25% of our care, so we rely heavily on charitable donations for the remaining 75%, of which a vital proportion comes from gifts in Wills.”

Maddy Bass, our Director of Nursing and Quality said;

“St John’s Hospice touches the lives of thousands of people every year; the patients we care for, their families and friends and the wider community. St John’s care provides nursing and medical care, therapies, social worker advice, bereavement and grief support. Over 80% of the patients we care for are in your neighbourhood, in their own homes, with the advice of the Clinical Nurse Specialist team, the Hospice at Home team, respite visits and night sits.

“Our aim is to celebrate the lives of our patients and provide pain and symptom management. We make every moment matter; it’s the visits from patients’ pets whether a dog or a horse, the weddings we arrange, the special anniversary occasions, the memory boxes we help create and the letters we help patients write. As the campaign says, our hospice care is everything you’d expect and everything you wouldn’t.”

By 2040 the number of annual deaths in the UK is expected to rise by 130,000, with 90% from natural causes. These are the people who need hospice care. So, St John’s Hospice is encouraging local residents to consider the profound impact that a gift in their Will can have.

To find out how you can support St John’s Hospice through your Will or for more information on Wills please visit www.sjhospice.org.uk/wills or contact [email protected].

St John’s is delighted to have received £700 from the Springfields Employees’ Medical Research & Charity Trust Fund to purchase an overbed table for use on our Inpatient Ward.

A big thank you to Springfields and their employees for their generous contribution. The overbed table will be very useful for patients who remain in bed, making their experience more comfortable.

Our annual newsletter lets you catch up with St John’s Hospice, with stories from patients and their families and features from team members. It gives you an insight into the Care, Compassion and Support we provide 365 days a year.

Please click tap the button to download a pdf of this year’s newsletter. If you would like a physical copy, you can still collect one from St John’s or from one of our many Shops throughout the community.

If you would like to receive a copy of our newsletter next year as well as information on our other promotions please fill out our Contact Preferences form (you can always change your mind later):

Contact Preference Form:

So, the trekkers begin their journey home. After a leisurely breakfast, the group enjoy a mooch around the area. Some visit Agra fort, others opt for a visit to the posh hotel around the corner for coffee and the rooftop terrace for some last rays of the sun. The weather will be very different back home!

We climb on the bus for the last journey- after some frantic last minute gift buying with some street sellers- and leave at 1pm, taking the same toll roads back to Delhi.

As we approach Delhi the traffic gets heavier and busier. As you can guess, the horns are being used as well as ever!

We have seen some unusual travel habits in India, which are obviously normal in their culture due to less rules than in the UK.
On scooters there are usually 3 people and at times, a whole family. They don’t all have helmets. Tuk tuks use the motorway. There is no slow lane- drivers simply move between lanes, indicating how by their horn. A truck moving a load of hay had a man laid on top of it in transit. We again see the street dogs and cows.

All checked in and on the plane home…..