Vine Hotels renovates Ashgate Hospicecare's family bedroom for free

The work by Vine Hotels - which has sites on the South Yorkshire/Derbyshire border - means families can stay together and be close to their loved ones in a 'beautiful, homely, and comfortable' space at the Chesterfield hospice.

Julie Foster, matron at Ashgate Hospicecare, said: “This fantastic project has only been possible thanks to Vine Hotels, who have gone the extra mile to help transform their local hospice.

"Vine Hotels have created a comfortable, restful and beautifully furnished space for families and friends visiting their loved ones here at Ashgate Hospicecare.

"The family bedroom is incredibly important for our patients. It provides the calming reassurance that their families and friends are able to stay overnight at the hospice and are near to them.

"For families and friends, the family bedroom provides all the facilities required to ensure a very comfortable stay without having to leave the hospice, especially when time is most precious.

"On behalf of everyone at Ashgate Hospicecare, thank you so much Vine Hotels for enabling us to provide the excellence in care that we strive for.”

Dawn Langan travelled to the hospice from Hastings in Sussex when her mum was a patient and she says the bedroom 'made a huge difference' to her family.

She said: “When my mum came into the hospice, I was really scared. However, as soon as I saw how well my mum was treated here, it completely changed my mind about hospice care. The fact that mum could have her own room meant that she was able to maintain her dignity right up to the end. We could go to the other family areas at the hospice to relax and make a drink and to give mum the privacy she needed.

"Being able to use the family bedroom made a huge difference to us in my mum’s final days. My children and I were able to spend much more time with her, rather than worrying about finding somewhere to stay or having to come back and forth to the hospice when we didn’t know how long we had left with her.

"The staff would always check on us and they even kept sandwiches aside for us so that we didn’t have to worry about getting food in the middle of the night. We were able to spend those last days making more precious memories with mum and those memories will always stay with us.

"I know that having a beautifully renovated family bedroom will make a world of difference to so many families going through the worst time of their life.”

Garin Davies, chief executive of Vine Hotels, said he and his colleagues were only too happy to help Ashgate.

"We were pleased to be given the opportunity to lend a hand and refurbish the room," he said. "We know how important the facility is and wanted to ensure that Ashgate could enable families to stay together.”

- Anyone who would like to help Ashgate Hospice should contact Ali, capital appeal and partnerships manager, on 01246 567250 or email [email protected].