You could win anything up to a whopping £25,000 on the Saint Francis Hospice Lottery. Every week, someone is guaranteed £1,000. Maureen Smith has been lucky enough to not only receive one windfall – but two!
Maureen’s link with the Hospice began in 2008 when they cared for her husband, Frank.
‘He did the typical “man thing” of his generation and didn’t tell anyone that he wasn’t feeling very well, not even me,’ Maureen remembered.
When Frank finally accepted that he needed to visit his GP, tests revealed that he was living with liver cancer, which had spread from his pancreas. Frank underwent chemotherapy while still trying his best to keep the full extent of his illness under wraps.
‘In his mind, he was always going to beat it,’ Maureen revealed. ‘Sadly, it wasn’t to be.’
Our Hospice at Home team cared for Frank during those two years and in the closing moments of his life. He was 68.
Six years later, Maureen called upon us once again. When her brother, Jimmy, felt a pain in his side, he suspected that years of being a roofer was catching up on him. Yet, it was bone cancer, which had spread from his prostate that was causing the discomfort.
When he was just 56, Jimmy was given only six months to live.
‘It all happened so quickly,’ Maureen recalled. ‘But the Hospice nurses made so much time for him, just as they did for Frank. They are angels.’
Maureen recalled the sense of normality at the Hospice as what made Frank and Jimmy’s time with us so special. She treasures the memory of taking Jimmy from our ward, just across the way to our Christmas Market, in what turned out to be his final trip.
‘Everybody there was so kind,’ she recollected. ‘I could stay by Frank and Jimmy’s bedsides for as long as I wanted; no one ever rushed me to leave.’
Maureen is now calling upon others to ensure that we will always be there for people just like Frank and Jimmy, by playing our Lottery.
‘If we didn’t have Saint Francis Hospice, then people wouldn’t receive the attention and dignified level of care that they truly deserve,’ she said.
If you’d like to do something incredible for local people living with life-limiting illnesses while being in with a chance of hitting the jackpot, then you can sign up here. for less than £5 a month.
For more information on how the Hospice’s Lottery works, please see their FAQs.
