Pilgrims Hospices make patient’s wedding wish come true
Elaine and Jason Edwards, a former carpenter, from Herne Bay were married in a civil ceremony at Jason’s flat on Saturday 30 July 2022. This was an extra special occasion, as Jason has motor neurone disease (MND) and is receiving support from Pilgrims Hospices.
The charity helped to make their big day possible, enabling them to create beautiful memories that will last forever.
The family is incredibly grateful for Pilgrims’ care, which frequently extends beyond its physical hospices and into the wider east Kent community.
Martyn Yates, Spiritual Care Lead and Complementary Therapist at Pilgrims, was integral in organising Elaine and Jason’s marriage.
Jason and Elaine on their wedding day
Elaine said: “Our experience with Pilgrims Hospices has been totally amazing. We had Martyn come out and see us from the spiritual care team, to help us with getting married. He was amazing. He was very informative, and due to all his help, we were married at home in Jason’s flat with a few family members and very close friends in attendance.
Martyn Yates
“Pilgrims gives us as a family help and support in ways we never imagined possible. They are on hand for help and advice 24 hours a day; it gives us peace of mind knowing that they are there throughout this hard time in our lives. It means so much to us that they are here for us. They do an amazing job, and we can’t thank them enough for all they do.”
Martyn added: “One of the really important parts of the work we do at Pilgrims is to make every day as good as it can be for both our patients and their families – so they can live their lives to the full. Our links with community agencies help us to do this; in this case, the Canterbury registrars pulled out all the stops, and between us we were able to achieve Elaine and Jason’s wishes. It is so lovely to be able to do things like this for our patients and their families.”
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
23rd June 2022
What is Wellbeing at Pilgrims Hospices?
Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing service is an integral part of hospice life; it is the foundation upon which a sense of trust can be established.
Billy Williams, Wellbeing Practitioner, and Justine Robinson, Therapies and Wellbeing Manager, explain how their team support patients who have been referred to hospice care, as well as their carers and families.
Justine Robinson, Therapies and Wellbeing Manager
The term ‘wellbeing’ feels like it’s everywhere at the moment, but you might be surprised to see it’s an important part of Pilgrims’ services. Wellbeing, put very simply, can be seen as ‘how you are doing’, either as an individual patient or carer, or as part of your family and community.
Often the first port of call for many who have been referred to hospice care, the Wellbeing team provide the building blocks that can help people not only come to terms with their diagnosis, but also enable them to live to their fullest every day.
Wellbeing Practitioners at Pilgrims Hospices provide both patients and carers with holistic, bespoke and tailored therapeutic tools to help them in managing a life-limiting illness. They offer a safe space for people to share their thoughts, open up about their conditions and connect with others going through similar experiences. They give people time to process, understand and come to terms with their diagnosis, whilst providing them with creative outlets and meaningful interactions. The team help people to realise that a life-limiting diagnosis does not mean life stops; in fact, life after diagnosis can flourish and provide a great deal of fulfilment, opportunity and fun.
Billy Williams, Wellbeing Practitioner
Our Therapy Centres
At Pilgrims, we believe a sense of wellbeing is important regardless of diagnosis. Our Therapy Centres offer a chance for connection, comfort, meaning, and joy by supporting patients, carers, families and loved ones in what matters to them.
In our Therapy Centres, we hope to help enhance patients’ and carers’ wellbeing by supporting them in a variety of ways. This could be by helping them feel more in control of what is happening to them, or understanding their symptoms better. It might be by giving them time to talk to people who are going through a similar situation, or by engaging in an activity that helps them feel better or more relaxed. We also offer the opportunity to plan for the future and consider what patients might want to create or leave their loved ones as a legacy.
Wellbeing Menu at Pilgrims
Time to Create
In these popular group sessions, patients create artwork based around seasonal themes or events. It is a chance for patients to get together, have fun and try something new.
Patient Virtual Café
Extending its Wellbeing service digitally has meant that Pilgrims is able to include people who are more cautious about leaving home. The Pilgrims Virtual Café is a fantastic opportunity for people to get together virtually, have a chat, make new friends and feel socially connected to the wider world.
Carer Café and Carer Walking Group
Pilgrims’ carer services are hugely valuable to families who are caring for loved ones. The Wellbeing team offer support within the Therapy Centres with tea, coffee and a friendly chat, as well as the opportunity to get outdoors, take in some fresh air and meet people going through similar situations in a peaceful and mindful natural environment.
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
30th May 2022
Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing team help patients celebrate Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Time to Create sessions at Pilgrims Hospices, run by the Wellbeing team, offer patients an opportunity to express themselves through arts and crafts activities in a group setting. This can help with the physical, emotional and spiritual challenges they may face after a diagnosis and referral to hospice care.
The team at Pilgrims Hospice Thanet has been busy getting ready to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Patients have designed custom pieces of art using the Queen’s famous silhouette as inspiration; drawing on different artistic techniques and styles, the team curated a unique collection to display in the Therapy Centre at the Thanet hospice.
Janis, a patient, shared what she has enjoyed about the project:
“The Queen has been a constant and stabilising presence for the country through so much adversity. It has been fun painting her.”
A Time to Create session at the Pilgrims Hospice Thanet Therapy Centre
Billy Williams, Wellbeing Practitioner, said:
“Working on such an iconic and world-famous image has been so much fun. Celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee is something that brings the whole country together; everyone at the hospice has been admiring the finished pieces, which we’ve displayed throughout the Therapy Centre.
“Time to Create sessions are a great way for patients to improve their overall wellbeing, meet people going through similar experiences and unwind in a calm and friendly environment. The group has really enjoyed working on these pieces; patients have experienced reduced anxiety and stress, and been able to focus on something positive.”
The feedback from patients is overwhelmingly positive, too:
“I was introduced to Billy and Time to Create after attending a breathlessness management group. I had no idea the hospice offered a wide range of Wellbeing activities. Time to Create is a wonderful way to spend a few hours every Thursday afternoon. I can completely switch off and enjoy the company of the group. It’s been fabulous.”
– Angela
“This is my first time at Time to Create and I have found it friendly and relaxing. I have really enjoyed it.”
– Donna
“Great company and great fun! I come to Time to Create to do many different arts and crafts, completely out of my comfort zone but so enjoyable.”
– Janis
“We all enjoy Time to Create, such fun and super company.”
– Henry
Wellbeing at Pilgrims is an essential part of the holistic care provided by the charity; mental health and wellbeing are vital in helping patients to live well, cultivate a positive mental attitude and develop a sense of purpose.
Pilgrims’ Wellbeing team offer a variety of both patient and carer-focused support, including art-based therapeutic activities like Time to Create and walking groups for carers. They work alongside the wider therapies team to ensure a holistic and person-centred approach is taken when supporting patients, carers and families.
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
11th May 2022
Nurse Shayla shares what she loves about working for Pilgrims Hospices
Helping to improve someone’s quality of life, at a point when it’s most precious, can lead to great job satisfaction.
Shayla Raine, from Margate is a Pilgrims’ Palliative Specialist Nurse (PSN) at the Thanet hospice in Margate. She joined the team recently from a district nurse background. Shayla shares how she became interested in end-of-life care and what she loves about her role.
Shayla said: “I thought I knew end-of-life care well, it’s only being here at Pilgrims Hospices, that I realised that there is so much more to know and learn, so much more that families need support-wise and so much more time that is needed with the patient and relatives to enable a peaceful end.”
Palliative care nurses provide care that helps patients maintain physical, mental, and emotional health. They take the time to understand the needs of each patient in order to provide a customised treatment plan that provides lasting relief.
Shayla, who is originally from Suffolk, moved to Kent as a young girl and told us:
“Nursing was never something I thought of doing as I grew up, I sort of, fell into the job. I was a cleaner at QEQM hospital for about two years; loved what I was seeing and wanted to be a healthcare assistant. Whilst cleaning the ward one day, a visitor said ‘come and work for me’. When I asked what she meant, she informed me she was a nursing home manager. I said I wanted to be a carer not a cleaner anymore and I was offered an interview there and then.
“I worked for the nursing home for about two years, made my way to a senior position and often helped the trained nurses with their duties. One day, one of the nurses asked why I hadn’t done my nursing training? I never thought I would be able to, the manager arranged for me to complete my access level three course and helped me apply for nursing. I managed the course over four months and started my nurse training very quickly. Thirteen years on, I have never looked back.”
Shayla on her motorbike
Kate White, Head of Nursing, says: “It is a pleasure to welcome Shayla to our community nursing team in Thanet. She joins a team of experts providing high quality service to the people of east Kent and I am sure will be a great asset with her wealth of experience.”
Shayla added: “I have always been a community nurse since qualifying in 2010, became team lead in 2015 and completed my District Nurse degree in 2018-2019.
“I became an end-of-life champion for the community nurses and really loved the EOL/palliative side of my role. When I decided it was time to change my pathway, I saw the job advertised for the palliative specialist role and jumped at the chance.
“The team at Thanet are amazing, I have never felt so supported.”
Shayla explained: “It’s really important to look after your own wellbeing, and when I’m not working, I enjoy riding my motorbike, reading, and watch a lot of comedy to relax. I have lots of reptiles too, so I am always pre-occupied looking after someone or something!”
If you’re interested in a nursing or care career at Pilgrims, we’d love to hear from you.
Check out our current vacancies for more information and apply today:
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
14th April 2022
Sponsor a Nurse appeal
None of us know when we might need hospice care, but your support has helped ensure we can continue to be here at the most difficult time in people’s lives.
Being faced with an illness that cannot be cured is something none of us want to think about, but we do all want to know that there will be someone to help us should we need them.
Since 2013, the Sponsor a Nurse appeal has raised an incredible £248,000 to support the care that Pilgrims Hospices offers.
Working within the hospice environment and meeting patients opens your eyes to what passion, empathy, dignity and respect truly mean. Working at Pilgrims gives us all time to appreciate what we have in our own lives, and puts the preciousness of life into perspective.
Beverley Allen, Community Registered General Nurse, Pilgrims Hospice Ashford
We take the time to listen
Sarah Martins
When a patient is referred to Pilgrims, we take the time to listen to and talk with them to find out what worries them most. We know that every patient is unique and we tailor all our care to what works best for them.
“I consider myself very privileged to support patients and their families at end of life; it underpins all that nursing is for me. We know that we can’t change the destination but we can change the journey.
Time, patience, specialist knowledge and humour keep us connected to our patients. We respect them as individuals and are able to connect on a human level, we give the care we would want and expect our loved ones to receive if they needed it and that is nearly all funded by the amazing general public.”
Sarah Martins, Senior Ward Sister, Pilgrims Hospice Canterbury
Bringing nurses to the bedside
Mandy Timms
Because we believe that everyone has the right to care, comfort, compassion and dignity in their final days, weeks, months or years, we provide all of our care free of charge.
“Pilgrims is a wonderful organisation to work for and I feel very privileged to come to work here every day. My role is so varied, involving community, clinic and home visits, and I never know what each day will bring. It is humbling spending time with patients who open their hearts and allow us to accompany them on their journeys.”
Mandy Timms, Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Giving the gift of care
Pilgrims is here so that patients do not come to their end-of-life journeys in pain or distress.
By sponsoring a nurse, our supporters have helped to ease pain, offer comfort, provide reassurance and help someone live their life to the full in the time that they have.
We support the whole person’s wellbeing to help them really live their last days. We treat people as individuals by offering them choices.
If you would like to continue supporting Pilgrims nurses, you can do so by joining Always Caring, a club of committed supporters who choose to make regular, monthly donations to Pilgrims Hospices.
Each year, Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to thousands of people in east Kent who are coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured. The charity support patients to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress.
13th April 2022
Karen says a fond farewell to Pilgrims after 21-year hospice nursing career
Karen Mowat from Ashford has enjoyed a 21-year nursing career at Pilgrims Hospices.
She will leave her role as Senior Ward Sister at the Ashford hospice in April 2022.
Upon joining the charity in 2001, Karen worked as a palliative specialist nurse on the ward and also did some night shifts, supporting patients directly and answering the phones, before progressing to a leadership role.
She reflects fondly on her time at Pilgrims and shares what she has loved most about working for the local hospice charity.
Karen said: “I originally wanted to be a secondary school teacher, but when I was 17, my nan (who I was living with at the time) developed Motor Neurone Disease, so I unexpectedly became her carer whilst I was still at college.
“When she died, I had a rethink about what I wanted to do; I got a job in a nursing home and found that I really enjoyed caring for vulnerable people and feeling like I could make a difference to help improve their quality of life, so I applied to do my nurse training.”
For me, nursing has always been about showing compassion and empathy, and treating patients and families how I would want to be treated.
Karen
Karen qualified as a nurse in 1995; she worked in trauma and orthopaedics at Guy’s Hospital, London for several years, and then as a community nurse in Battersea where she developed an interest in palliative care.
She continued: “For me, nursing has always been about showing compassion and empathy, and treating patients and families how I would want to be treated. In the community, I looked after people with terminal illnesses in their own homes. We worked in collaboration with the local hospice, and I started to think that hospice nursing was what I wanted to do.”
When Karen and her husband, Ryan, moved to Ashford in February 2001, she heard that the Ashford hospice had recently opened and enquired about nursing vacancies. Shortly after, she was offered a post.
Karen said: “I am very privileged to be part of an amazing team of nurses on the in-patient unit, each of whom is committed to providing the best care possible for our patients. The team work really well together and are all so supportive of each other.
“We’re able to spend time with patients and their families to understand what is important to them, and we can then individualise the care we give, which makes our jobs so varied. I love the fact that each day is different – I never know what’s going to happen on a shift. Although obviously some days are very sad, there are also many days that are full of laughter – in fact, that’s one of things a lot of patients first notice when they arrive on the ward.”
Karen and her colleagues have faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some positives have come out of it, too.
She continued: “The worst thing, by far, was having to restrict visitors; to not be able to allow patients and families to be together at such an important time has been heartbreaking, and goes against everything we believe in as a hospice team.
“However, we’ve become closer and gained a deeper respect for each other because of the challenges we’ve faced. I know I speak for the whole nursing team at Ashford when I say we’re looking forward to opening up even more; being able to provide patients and families with that ‘something extra’ is what makes Pilgrims so special and different from other places.”
Although obviously some days are very sad, there are also many days that are full of laughter – in fact, that’s one of things a lot of patients first notice when they arrive
Karen
Karen is leaving Pilgrims to take on an office-based role working from home, which she hopes will help her achieve a better work-life balance. After having a stroke in 2019, she is keen to focus on maintaining good health. She hopes to return to Pilgrims in the future in an educational capacity or possibly doing occasional nursing shifts on the ward.
Kate White, Head of Nursing at Pilgrims Hospices, said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Karen for the last four and a half years. She is the pinnacle of professionalism, compassion and patient-centred care. Nothing is too much trouble for her; she always goes above and beyond for her staff, patients and their families. She approaches everything with a can-do attitude and this has certainly rubbed off on her team.
“I know she will be greatly missed at Ashford, but she has come to this difficult decision for the right reasons. I will miss her attention to detail and her sense of humour, and would like to wish her all the very best in her new venture.”
Karen added: “I have truly loved my time at Pilgrims; we empower patients to be involved in decisions about their care to enable them to have the best quality of life they can.
“There are so many different teams within Pilgrims, but everyone ultimately works together to the same end – to ensure the people of east Kent benefit from vital services that are accessible, equitable and of the highest standard.”
We’re looking for people to join us in providing outstanding quality care and support to those who need it most.
If you’re interested in a nursing or care career at Pilgrims, we’d love to hear from you.
Check out our current vacancies for more information and apply today:
Each year, Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to thousands of people in east Kent coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured. The charity supports patients to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress. Care is provided from three hospice sites in Ashford, Canterbury and Thanet, as well as in patients’ own homes. To offer these services to patients and their families the charity must raise £11 million each year from the generous local community.
