Putting patients first: An update on how data is shaping better care at Pilgrims
At Pilgrims Hospices, caring for people at the end of life is about more than treating illness – it’s about comfort, dignity, emotional support, its about helping patients and their families feel less alone.
One of the ways we make sure we are giving the best possible care is by listening carefully to the people we support and learning from their experiences.
We ask simple, thoughtful questions about things such as pain, nausea, breathlessness, anxiety and how supported someone feels, their need for information and concerns about equipment and similar.
These insights help our teams understand not just what someone is going through, but how care is making a difference day by day. Increasingly, we are also looking at wellbeing (including emotional support and how carers are coping), gaining a fuller picture of each person’s experience.
The learning from this is powerful. Many people come to Pilgrims with difficult symptoms. For example, a significant number of patients arrive experiencing high levels of pain. During their time with us, that changes.
We see clear improvements in comfort, with far fewer people reporting severe pain as care continues. Breathlessness and other distressing symptoms show similar patterns of improvement.
Just as importantly, families tell us they feel less anxious.
When people feel informed, supported and reassured, they can focus on spending precious time together.
Aaron Salter, Business Intelligence Lead at Pilgrims Hospices, explains:
“We’re not just looking at numbers, we’re listening to what patients and families tell us about their symptoms, their worries and how supported they feel. When we see pain levels reduce, nausea or breathlessness ease, or family anxiety fall, that shows us our care is making a real difference. It also helps us learn and keep improving.”
These insights help clinical teams tailor care to each individual. If something isn’t working as well as it could, they can respond quickly and adapt.
Dr Pia Amsler, Medical Director at Pilgrims Hospices, adds:
“These measures help us understand how someone is really feeling physically and emotionally. They guide our teams to adjust care, respond quickly to distressing symptoms and support families as well as patients. It reassures us that what we do each day truly improves comfort, dignity and quality of life because we act on what patients and families tell us is important to them.”
This work is also attracting interest beyond east Kent, with other hospices keen to learn from our approach. Ultimately, these insights show the difference your support makes helping people feel more comfortable, more supported and less anxious during an incredibly difficult time.
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
25th March 2026
Celebrating 25 years of care at Pilgrims Hospice Ashford
Photograph: Sue Warren, Reception Volunteer
This year, Pilgrims Hospice Ashford marks a very special milestone: 25 years of care, compassion and community since opening on 4 January 2001.
As the youngest of Pilgrims’ hospices, Ashford was guided by the lessons learned at Canterbury (1982) and Thanet (1992), but it was the local community that truly brought it to life. By 1998, east Kent needed more specialist hospice care.
The tranquil meadows at Willesborough were chosen for a purpose-built hospice offering inpatient care, community services and therapeutic support for patients and their families.
The £3.5 million fundraising target felt daunting, but the community response was extraordinary. Businesses, schools, charitable trusts, groups and individual supporters rallied behind the Hospice on the Hill Appeal 2000.
What seemed impossible became reality because people believed hospice care close to home mattered.
At the heart of those early days was founder Ann Robertson OBE, famously taking to a JCB for the 1999 groundbreaking. Her determination mirrored the spirit of the community that built the Ashford hospice from the ground up.
Pam Pullen Volunteer 1
Sarah Smith HCA Ashford 1
Pam Pullen, Reception Volunteer, and Sarah Smith, Healthcare Assistant
That spirit continues today through staff and volunteers working together to create warmth, dignity and comfort. Reception volunteers Jeanette Woodcock, Pam Pullen and Sue Warren, catering assistant Wendy Wigglesworth, and Healthcare Assistant Sarah Smith all remember the hospice from its early days.
Every role, paid or voluntary, is part of the caring community supporting patients and families.
Recent improvements, including the beautifully refurbished lounge, were made possible by community fundraising, local businesses and charitable foundations, offering brighter, more welcoming spaces for families.
For the 25th birthday, displays of memorabilia and shared stories have celebrated the many lives touched by the Ashford hospice.
“Reaching 25 years is a proud and emotional moment,” says Martin Kemp, Hospice Services Manager. “It’s a chance to feel nostalgia for the past while seeing new projects and plans for the future. This birthday celebrates our community and acts as a springboard into the next chapter.”
Ashford’s story is one written by its community, past, present and future.
Wendy Wigglesworth, Catering Assistant, said:
“I feel very honoured to work at the hospice. I have met some amazing people, patients, relatives and staff over the past 25 years.”
Jeanette Woodcock, Reception Volunteer, with Wendy Wigglesworth, Catering Assistant
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
23rd March 2026
Living well in each moment: Lawrence’s journey with Pilgrims Hospices
Lawrence Fox, a Londoner and former construction manager who has lived in Canterbury for 27 years, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2024.
After beginning chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, he was referred by his specialist nurse to Pilgrims Hospices for additional support.
Lawrence has experienced the holistic benefits of hospice care through wellbeing groups, physiotherapy and complementary therapy:
“I do guided mindfulness sessions at Pilgrims, which I love; they help me stay present in the moment and not get so anxious about the future – that’s the secret. I’m interested in psychology and being mentally strong. And I love being around people; there are some things you can’t tell your family, but you can share them with strangers, which is so helpful.”
Lawrence also attends Living Well groups, which offer talks by speakers on a range of topics, and has had reflexology treatment: “I’d never tried that, so I thought I’d have a go! I found it very relaxing.”
Most recently, he has joined Time to Create, a therapeutic art group where patients can try various artistic activities and processes, and is currently making a memory book:
“It’s nice coming to the hospice and catching up with some friendly faces.”
Lawrence values his physical fitness and says that being active helps him manage his illness; he does Pilates and, thanks to the support he is receiving from Pilgrims, hopes to begin swimming again in the near future, having previously swam for his native London Borough of Islington – “It’s like therapy for me.”
Lawrence continued:
“Without Pilgrims, I wouldn’t have known what to do or where to go after my diagnosis. They’re always here if you need them, and having that back-up is reassuring. The groups get me out of the house and into a routine, and I’ve met so many people – including partners and carers, who are welcome at the hospice groups, as it gives them a break as well.
“I didn’t realise until now that the hospice relies so much on donations, so I want to give back in any way I can, and sharing my story is one way I can do that.”
Pilgrims run a wide range of wellbeing groups and activities designed to support patients to live well, stay connected and enjoy the best quality of life possible.
For more information on Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing Programme:
Call the Pilgrims Hospices Advice Line on 01233 504 133
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
12th March 2026
From grief to giving: How Pilgrims Hospices helped author David Dye navigate loss and find purpose
“Pilgrims Hospices is very special to me. I find it hard to explain why — because it’s more of a feeling than something you can describe. But when you’ve been touched by the kind of care they offer, it stays with you forever.”
For Faversham-based author and Pilgrims supporter David Dye, the journey of grief, healing, and rediscovery began with profound loss — and grew into something lasting and meaningful, thanks to the care and comfort he and his wife, Karen, received from Pilgrims Hospices.
David’s wife, Karen
Karen died in June 2021 after a 10-year battle with an extremely rare and cruel form of cancer. Her illness was long and relentless, involving aggressive treatments, years of clinical trials, and even a complete blood transplant. “What she endured sometimes felt like more torture than the illness itself,” David reflects. “But she faced it all with dignity and extraordinary strength.”
Throughout the last five years of her life, Pilgrims was a constant support — not just for Karen, but for David, too. “They gave us dignity, peace, and a calm, caring environment when we needed it most. The staff and volunteers at Pilgrims have provided end-of-life care for several of my loved ones. Their spirit, soul, and sincere friendship go far beyond professionalism — they offer true humanity. I believe I’ve earned the right to say that.”
In the early weeks after Karen passed, David found himself at a loss. “I was sitting at the kitchen table, feeling utterly useless, shuffling through paperwork to find something — anything — to focus on.”
That’s when he came across a hand-written memoir by his late mother-in-law. It described her early life in South Africa — the lake she lived beside, the canoe she paddled in each day. “Her words were so vivid, I felt I was standing on the lake’s edge, watching her glide by. It pulled me out of my darkness.”
Cold War, Hot Pursuit by David Dye
Inspired, David began to write — at first about his own early life growing up in the concrete jungle of East London. He admits those first 20 pages felt “grey and dismal” in comparison to the colour of his mother-in-law’s writing. But he persisted, scrapping half of it and pressing on. “Soon, reality began to blur into fiction. I was no longer writing a memoir — I had set sail for fantasy land.”
That moment became the start of a new chapter.
Four years later, David has published four novels and recently submitted a fifth. All proceeds from book sales — amounting to thousands of pounds — are donated to Pilgrims Hospices. “Karen told me in a dream not to be tight — to give it all to Pilgrims. And I’ve learned not to argue with her!”
David writes entirely by hand. “I tried the computer but tip-tapping doesn’t take me where I need to go. Writing with a pen lets me drift into other worlds.” Thanks to the help of a brilliant local typist and a supportive publisher, his stories now reach readers far and wide — always with Karen’s memory at their core.
Karen, born and raised in Canterbury, was a beautiful, modest, athletic woman. She was a star of the Archbishop’s School rounders team and a gifted high diver, training at Crystal Palace. She once stunned a poolside crowd in Tunisia by performing a flawless triple somersault from the highest board.
“She was never pretentious,” David recalls. “Just quietly, incredibly capable.”
But it was her love for horses — and all animals — that defined her. A brilliant equestrian, she competed across the country and amassed an impressive collection of rosettes and medals.
“I’m still trying to gather them all for storage,” David says. “It’s not easy.”
One of David’s most powerful memories — fictionalised in his first book — is of a sunset trail ride on a working ranch near Phoenix, Arizona. When a Dobermann puppy was attacked by a pack of coyotes, Karen jumped off her horse, tied the terrified pup to her saddle, and kicked away the circling animals as David watched in awe and fear. “My heart was pounding so hard, I think it reached the ranch before I did. But that’s who she was — brave beyond belief.”
Karen’s teddy bears
Recently, David donated a treasured collection of Karen’s teddy bears to Pilgrims Hospices. Each one is carefully tagged and lovingly prepared for use in fundraising events, or listed on Pilgrims’ eBay site, where rare and collectible bears can raise vital funds.
Family remains at the centre of David’s life.
His son Matthew, who has cerebral palsy, lives independently in Ramsgate and once volunteered at Pilgrims Hospices during a school work placement. David later joined him in hospital volunteering before the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing comfort and treats to patients on the dialysis ward. His daughter has recently returned to the UK with David’s granddaughter to finish her education — and the family’s connection to Kent remains strong.
From his early days working at Simpsons of Piccadilly — where a colleague later modelled the character Mr. Lucas in Are You Being Served? after him — to high-level roles in the finance industry that took him and Karen around the globe, David’s life has been colourful and varied. But the loss of Karen, and the compassionate care they received at Pilgrims, changed everything.
Today, David continues to honour her legacy through creativity, charity, and community. In his garden grow Cercis trees — chosen for their heart-shaped, crimson leaves — planted in memory of Karen.
“If I ever move,” he says, “those trees are coming with me.”
“We’re all in the queue to meet our maker — whether we talk about it or not. But when that moment comes, Pilgrims are there to help us through. That kind of comfort is beyond value. I’ll support them as long as I live.”
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
11th March 2026
How creativity, friendship and love come to life at Pilgrims Hospices
When Kevin Carter first heard about Pilgrims Hospices’ 12-week Time to Create group, he wasn’t convinced it was for him.
“I thought it would all be drawing,” he admits. “I really wasn’t sure what to expect.”
Now, the 58-year-old from Ramsgate wouldn’t miss a Thursday for the world.
Kevin’s teddy bear, Wonky, with Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moe
Kevin attends the Wellbeing and Therapy Centre at Pilgrims Hospice Thanet, having been referred by King’s College Hospital in London following a diagnosis of liver cancer. After being introduced to the range of wellbeing support available at Pilgrims, he decided to give Time to Create a try, and quickly discovered something special.
“Well, it’s been amazing,” Kevin says. “This is how I spend my Thursdays now. I’ve made such good friends, tried lots of different crafts, and created keepsakes and cards for my family to treasure forever.”
One creation in particular has captured hearts across the group: a soft, handmade teddy bear Kevin proudly named Wonky.
Wonky is stitched together with care, his slightly uneven seams and gentle smile giving him real character. Made in warm, neutral fabric and small enough to be held close, he’s far from perfect, and that’s exactly why Kevin loves him.
“I’m especially pleased with my teddy bear,” Kevin says. “I named him Wonky because he’s not perfect, just like all of us. But he’s full of love.”
Wonky is a gift for Kevin’s nine-year-old daughter, Bonnie, and a symbol of something much deeper.
“It matters to me to leave something behind that’s been made with love,” Kevin explains. “I hope when Bonnie holds Wonky, she feels how much she means to me. I also have a 13-year-old son, Logan, I’ve yet to make something for him… however, I am responding well to treatment, so there will be time.”
The teddy-making didn’t stop with Wonky. Inspired by Kevin, several other members of the group began making bears of their own.
One fellow participant even created a set of tiny bears in tins for Kevin, keepsakes he treasures just as much.
“They’ve truly captured my heart,” Kevin says with a smile. “I’ve named them Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moe. One’s for Bonnie and one’s for me. They live in their own special tins.”
For Kevin, creativity was never part of his life before joining Pilgrims.
Having spent his career in the building industry and lived in Thanet for 30 years, originally hailing from the Rhondda Valley in Wales, sewing and crafting were entirely new experiences.
“I never imagined I’d be doing this,” he says.
“But the group brings me to life. We laugh a lot, we share stories, and there’s always tea, cake, friendship and care here.”
The Time to Create group is facilitated by Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing team and offers patients a relaxed, supportive space to explore creativity, whether through sewing, crafting, card-making or other hands-on activities.
It’s open to people living with a life-limiting illness and focuses on emotional, psychological and social wellbeing.
Kate Brewer, Wellbeing Practitioner at Pilgrims Hospice Thanet, has seen first-hand the impact the group has had on Kevin:
“Kevin’s idea to make a teddy didn’t just result in one bear, it inspired the whole group,” she says. “Creativity gives people a sense of purpose, connection and joy. We’ve seen Kevin grow in confidence, build friendships and create something that will carry his love forward.”
During sessions, the room is often filled with laughter, gentle concentration and conversation,hands busy with needles and fabric, stories shared over cups of tea, and moments of quiet pride as projects come together.
“At Pilgrims, we support the whole person, not just their medical needs,” Katie adds. “Creative activities like Time to Create allow people to express themselves, form meaningful connections and leave a legacy for those they love. That legacy might be a teddy bear, a card, or simply the memories made together.”
As Kevin reflects on Wonky and the time he’s spent at Pilgrims, one thing stands out above all else:
“Even imperfect things can be the most treasured,” he says. “I hope when my family see these teddies, they remember the love behind them, and the laughter that helped make them.”
Pilgrims run a wide range of wellbeing groups and activities designed to support patients to live well, stay connected and enjoy the best quality of life possible.
For more information on Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing Programme:
Call the Pilgrims Hospices Advice Line on 01233 504 133
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
4th March 2026
Kelvin and Joy’s story
Kelvin and Joy’s story is intertwined with much joy, some real sadness and heartbreak, but one of true love that always continued despite everything that happened between them.
Kelvin and Joy in New Zealand, February 1992
Joy and I were married for 25 years, before separating for a time. We always remained close and Joy always knew that I would be there for her if she ever needed me. I knew her so well having been together for nearly 28 years, and I never stopped loving her.
In the early part of 2008, Joy became quite ill, but despite several appointments with her GP, it wasn’t until she had blood tests in mid-2008 that she was eventually diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. From this point onwards, we once more became husband and wife in all but name, and I was with her every step of the way on her very brave fight against this dreadful disease until sadly she passed away at the Pilgrims Hospice in Ashford in the early hours of Saturday 19 December 2009.
I will always be so grateful to the Pilgrims Hospice for the wonderful care that they gave to Joy in her final few days and for all the support they gave to Joy’s family and friends at this time. It also remains very special to me to this very day that on the morning Joy passed away, the hospice had arranged for me to stay overnight with her and that I could be with her during her final few hours before she sadly passed away. The compassion that the hospice staff showed to me will remain with me for the rest of my life.
Although it is now over 16 years since Joy passed away, I still miss her every day and treasure the love that we shared together over so many years.
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Kelvin Joy 3
Kelvin Joy 2
Kelvin Joy 1
Kelvin and Joy through the years
The hospice was there for us when we needed them most, and it is for this reason I continue to support them in a number of ways today via the Memory Tree, Sunflower Memories and Trees of Love. For me, leaving a gift in my Will to Pilgrims Hospices is a further way to say thank you to them in Joy’s memory so that others may receive the same wonderful care and support that she did.
Pilgrims Hospices provides compassionate, specialist care free of charge to thousands of people in east Kent each year who are living with life-limiting conditions. Support is offered in patients’ homes, in the community, and at our three hospice sites in Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford. We also run a 24-hour advice line.
