Serena’s gift bags

My Mum:

Maureen Score, was diagnosed with cancer in the July of 2018 which knocked us all for six. We have no previous cancer in our side of the family and so we were shell-shocked to say the least. The diagnosis was ovarian cancer of which chemotherapy was started but by the December of that year she was worsening and needed urgent life-saving surgery. This was performed in the January of 2019 and we were told this was touch and go. She made it through, thankfully for us, but the surgery was not 100% successful and the cancer also found to be primary gastro-intestinal not ovarian. By this time it was too far spread and we were told as she was weakened she had but a few months to live.

Around the March of 2019 she was admitted to St. Michael’s Hospice for palliative care. She did manage a few visits home in the time before she passed but the care she received under St. Michael’s was exemplary. With some previous healthcare experience, the staff would ask if I wanted a job but you do what you can for your loved ones!  My Dad, elder sister and I did all we could to help her in her final months. My Dad and I, being more local, managed to get up more daily to visit and assist with her care (where she wanted) and my sister visited weekly, it was all hands on deck.

My Mum finally passed at the Hospice on Wednesday May 29th, 2019, 5 months to the day before what would have been her 70th birthday. It was all very quick and St. Michael’s staff stayed with me and my Dad as she took her last breath. I had to make a sudden heartbreaking call to my sister in the New Forest to tell her Mum had left us which absolutely broke my heart.

The idea:

My sister and I did the 8 mile local Hospice walk in the Autumn of 2019 to commemorate Mum and raised funds for the service and later my sister also did the Jurassic Walk for the same reasons, it was a tough one for her but she did it!

Come 2020 Covid was hitting and the pressure on all our NHS services was increasing. The NHS staff were under immense pressure and so people were looking to help with meals, shower gels, hand cream to ease the chapped hands etc. This year I thought back on the concept and adopted the same stance to try and give back to the hospice staff who tirelessly give to their patients and families so I put out a ‘shout out for smellies, chocolate and the like’ on social media. A small appreciation for the work and care the staff do.

The donors:

I had started collecting smellies and toiletries before I put the thought live. I popped a Facebook shout out and within a few weeks I was inundated from family and friends and my employer. The donations were phenomenal across the board but the staff at Great Binfields Primary were SO kind in their donations. Class teachers, LSAs and Admin were very generous and made me believe I could actually deliver my hope.

If it were not for all the people that donated, my work, my friends and extended members of the localised community this couldn’t and wouldn’t have happened and so I am grateful for every donation received.

*****

Everyone at the Hospice was so touched by the thought and care that went into these gifts. We would like to say a big thank you to Serena and to everyone involved xx