Lewis-Manning Hospice is launching its Time to Care Appeal on Tuesday 2nd June 2009, with a special evening event in the beautiful hospice grounds overlooking Poole Bay and Brownsea Island at Lilliput, Poole. The Appeal is to raise £2.5 million to build a new state of the art 12 bedded in-patient unit in the existing hospice grounds and support the growth and development of existing services.
Advances in modern medicine have meant that people with cancer and life threatening illnesses are living longer and this is a message of great hope. However, this means that people are living with their often complicated symptoms for longer and carers having to manage for longer.
The purpose built unit will offer much needed planned respite care and some emergency access beds, allowing carers to have a break knowing that their loved ones are being cared for in a safe and specialist environment.
There will beds for patients who need intensive physiotherapy to allow them to leave hospital and get home as quickly as possible.
The service could also be a choice for some during the last days or weeks of their life to be cared for in a warm, loving environment by a specialist nursing team.
The unit will utilise Lewis-Manning’s existing services of day hospice, lymphoedema clinic and breathlessness clinic. All of the hospice’s services will remain free of charge.
This all round care will be a unique local service for people living within Dorset and Hampshire.
On completion of the build over 1,800 people with a life-threatening illness will benefit from these free services in the first three years.
Elizabeth Purcell, Chief Executive, Lewis-Manning Hospice said,
“We are very excited to be launching our Time to Care Appeal to build a bedded unit within our beautiful hospice grounds. The Appeal will allow us to support our existing services and offer a range of creative and flexible services into the future. The difficult economic climate has in fact helped Lewis-Manning reduce some of the build costs. The generosity of the local community has helped support our services for local people for the past 17 years and we will need the support of the general public and business community to help us raise the funds needed. Every pound quickly adds up and the end result will make the world of difference to hundreds of local people every year. ”
people develop cancer at some stage in their lives