The Earl Mountbatten Hospice has this week launched its ‘Meaningful Moments’ project, which aims to connect the hospice’s shops with the extraordinary care given to patients and their families every day across the Isle of Wight.
A number of sunflowers have been painted on a wall inside the hospice’s Newport shop, the centres of which feature a patient’s or family’s story. The aim is to eventually replicate the sunflowers and stories in all 10 hospice shops across the Island. Leaflets featuring the stories will also be given to customers.
The first story is about Carol and Michael Fryer. Carol had a great love for horses and a friend brought her 2 horses to the Hospice whilst she was an inpatient. Sadly, it was the last time she would see them, as Carol died shortly afterwards. Michael has written about the experience of patient care at the Hospice and how staff helped them both through a life-limiting illness. Carol’s photograph and a short version of her story will feature on the first leaflets being given to customers in our Newport shop.
Called ‘Meaningful Moments’, the idea for the project came about through a course for staff at Earl Mountbatten Hospice where small groups worked on a project. One of the groups was called ‘The Storytellers’ and was made up of a broad range of staff roles: a member of the retail team, a community nurse, a ward sister, the clinical support team leader and a nurse in the St Mary’s Hospital palliative care team.
The aim of the Storytellers’ project was to close the gap between the retail/fundraising elements of the Hospice and the direct patient experiences which happen every day. A number of stories and experiences were gathered, with the consent of those involved. All of the stories are real experiences, many are incredibly powerful and show the true nature of what people really value when faced with life-limiting illness.
The hospice would like to thank everyone who has contributed their stories and given permission to share them with the public in this way.
