“The hospice gives me a reason to get up”

In February 2024, Debbie Wilkinson, 57, from Stafford, was diagnosed with lung cancer and given just two to three months to live or 12 to 18 months with chemotherapy.

She chose to have chemotherapy and for the past few months has been attending the hospice as an outpatient.

Debbie is a mum-of-four and four stepchildren and has 11 grandchildren with another due in February of next year. For 35 years, our charity has been helping people like Debbie.

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This is her story…..

“I was in total shock when they told me I had suspected lung cancer. I was at A&E on my own at 11.30 pm and I didn’t take it all in at first which was perhaps a good thing as I then had to drive myself home.

“I’d been to the doctor three or four times with pain and shortness of breath for a number of years and had always been told it was pleurisy. I started to think if I had been diagnosed earlier would the cancer have been treatable.

“Then I started coming to the hospice as an outpatient after I was referred by the hospital.

“At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to come here as I thought it was a place you came to die but one of the nurses explained to me what happens in a hospice and I thought I would give it a try.

“It’s like a new lease of life for me”

 

“I was just getting out of bed at home and wasn’t doing anything. I realised I didn’t want to live like that so I agreed to come to the hospice.

“It’s really been amazing and has given me a reason to get up in a morning. It’s like a new lease of life.

“Now I come to the regular coffee mornings and meet people going through a similar experience to me and I have joined a knit and natter group which I love.

“So, my way of giving something back – or saying thank you for the care I have received – is to knit some toys for the Christmas raffle. It’s the least I can do to show my gratitude.

 

“My mum comes with me to the hospice”

“My mum was struggling with my diagnosis so now she comes with me to the hospice coffee mornings and other events and it has helped her come to terms with it all.

“Recently, I started getting pains so one of the hospice doctors persuaded me to go back to A&E.”

Debbie was looked at and discharged but she was worried so spoke to Mel, one of our nurses, who asked her GP to call her and run through the results.

“I was told the tumour was growing again and only had months to live. I was gobsmacked. I was expecting years, not months and I am determined to see my grandchild – a girl – born in February when she is due.

“So if it hadn’t been for Mel acting on my behalf, I wouldn’t have known the tumour had started to grow again. It’s that support from the hospice that really helps – they give that little bit more all the time.

“I have joined in with so many activities since coming to the hospice. As well as the knit and natter and the coffee mornings, I have also been given counselling and attended the six-week Therapy & Wellbeing sessions. I have had reiki too – it’s all been such a big help for me.

 

“The hospice is not a place you come to die – it’s a place where there is fun and laughter”

“The hospice is not a place you come to die. You can do so much here and get so much help – it’s a place where there is fun and laughter.

“This charity is fantastic with amazing people and the staff offer so much more. I do not know where I would be without Katharine House Hospice. Everyone is so reassuring and supportive. They make time for you, they are interested in you and they are always caring.

“I’d love to express my gratitude to each and every one of them for what they have done for me – I would do anything for them if I could just to say thank you.

“Katharine House Hospice is well-known in Stafford but many people don’t realise just what you do. It’s vitally important we all support you.”