We have supported Hospice UK since 2002 by funding their hospice grants programme. The overarching aim of these grants is to invest in emerging innovations in hospice care, which have the potential to transform how people are supported at the end of life.
Our funding from 2019 – 2021 focused on Breathlessness and Lung Health. £550,000 was awarded to 19 hospices across the UK to provide services and deliver programmes that helped improve the quality of life of people with respiratory diseases. St. Wilfrid’s Hospice was just one of the hospices that received funding – see how their Breathe Well, Live Well programme helped give a new lease of life to their patients.
St Wilfrid’s Hospice was able to set up the Breathe Well, Live Well programme with the help of our grant funding. The programme launched a series of videos and podcasts that were packed with easy-to-follow practical techniques, giving people the means to combat breathlessness from the comfort of their homes.
Mick Harmsworth was given just weeks to live, but after being referred to St Wilfrid’s Hospices’ Breathe Well programme he was able to find a new lease of life, despite the limitations imposed by his terminal disease.
“Breathlessness, it’s like someone is slowly trying to stop you breathing, and you have to fight for one more breath. Having been taught how to handle that initial feeling– ‘I can’t breathe’ and the panic that makes it so you can’t breathe even more, well you are being taught to slow it down, step by step, and calm yourself. This support from St Wilfrid’s has made it possible for me to enjoy time with my grandchildren. It’s like getting a bit of your life back.”
Not only can the resources be used by patients with respiratory diseases but are also proving valuable for patients who have Covid-19, as breathlessness is often a symptom of the virus and of long-Covid.
“Thank you once again to St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation for making our ‘Breathe Well, Live Well’ series not only possible, but a huge success for our Hospice and local community. It has given us a great tool of successful, new resources to really engage people with our care offering in a new, modern and accessible way, and the confidence to use a hybrid model of delivering care, that we can adapt and utilise across all of our services.” – St. Wilfrid’s Hospice
Return to Impact Report 2021