'Their empathy and understanding is remarkable': Families reveal how Chesterfield's Ashgate Hospice picked them up when they hit rock bottom

All three women are from the north Derbyshire area and all have lost a beloved family member to cancer.

One organisation, a Chesterfield institution currently facing one of the greatest challenges in its history, was a pillar of strength at the time of their greatest need.

Julie’s husband John died, aged 54, in May 2018 after a five-year batlle with cancer which began in his kidneys before spreading to his lungs, bones and brain.

Ashgate Hospicecare looked after John towards the end of his life and the ‘sheer professionalism’ of its team, ‘from receptionists to orderlies, to the pastoral and medical teams’ is what Julie remembers.

"Their empathy, their understanding, the way they deal with such difficult issues is remarkable,” Julie, who lives in Crich, said.

News last week that the hospice is facing a £2million funding shortfall, and could have to make compulsory redundancies, has left Julie feeling ‘sad and disappointed’.

“It is appalling that hospices are not funded properly,” she said. “Ashgate did everything for John and really took the pressure off me when I felt at breaking point.

"When you are told you are near the end of your life the NHS busts a gut, nothing is too much trouble. Yet the hospices themselves aren’t funded properly. It makes no sense.”

Julie admits she isn’t even close to moving on from her husband’s death.

Becki’s sister, Kimberley Trickett, is one of the youngest people to have died at the hospice after choosing to end her life there in 2009 at the age of 20.

"I remember being surprised that Kimberley made that decision,” Becki said.

“I thought it would just be full of old people but I was so wrong. It is such a lovely, welcoming place.

"Kimberley was so young and a very personal and private person. So they let us look after her the way we wanted. Her friends could visit, her boyfriend, we were able to take the dog and we even had a KFC day where we ate out in the garden.

"We called the staff there Ashgate angels. They could not have done more. They made a nightmare situation more bearable.”

Kimberley’s family are so grateful they have not stopped fundraising for the hospice since her death and have raised more than £104,000.

Alison Potts lost her mum, Barbara Stone, to cancer just one month ago and agrees that Ashgate helps to create a ‘home from home’ for its patients and their families.

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Barbara was first diagnosed two years ago and began attending the hospice’s day centre in October 2019 when the family were told the cancer had spread.

"They were wonderful with her and it gave her a new lease of life,” Alison, of Loundsley Green, Chesterfield, said.

"When the time came mum wanted to die at the hospice and they allowed us to give her a truly dignified death.

"They helped us to look at mum’s death as nothing to be scared of and it felt like there was a peace to it. It did not have the fear it would have done if we had been forced to go through it all alone.

"After mum had passed away the hospice still contacts us to check we are ok.

"It is a wonderful service and it’s not something which should have a budget cut to the bone. It should be funded properly.”

Last year, the hospice looked after 1,680 patients at home, 414 patients on its ward and supported 476 bereaved family members.

All this when less than 30 per cent of its total income came from local NHS health budgets.

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Instead, in normal times, the hospice relies on events like its massively popular Sparkle Night Walk and its army of local fundraisers.

With this year being far from normal, the hospice has seen its income shrink and its bosses face some very difficult decisions.

Announcing the funding problems last week, chief executive Barbara-Anne Walker said: “Heading into winter during a national pandemic the last thing I want to do as chief executive of Ashgate is seek voluntary redundancies.

"But we are faced with very little choice. The CCG have said they may be able to provide us with a limited amount of funds for the current year only, but this does not allow for further risk to fundraising and our retail shops this year nor does it, in any way, tackle the underlying imbalance in our costs of patient care and statutory funding.

“We urgently need to know what funding we will receive for the next year, commencing April 2021, without which we have to make plans now based on what we do know.

“We are facing significant additional financial challenges that are going to affect our income for months if not years to come.”

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Chesterfield’s MP, Toby Perkins, believes the north of Derbyshire is being ‘short-changed’ when it comes to palliative care funding.

While NHS Derby & Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group insists it is working with the hospice to find a solution to funding problems, the Labour MP has called for the imbalance to be redressed.

"I am aware that there is a longstanding discrepancy between palliative care funding between north and south Derbyshire, and the CCG should prevent patients in the north of the county continuing to be short-changed,” Mr Perkins added.

"The pandemic has shown the fragility of the end-of-life sector and it is clear that hospices can no longer be expected to rely upon charity retail, coffee mornings or fundraising marathons to prop them up.”

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