Tony

My wife was recovering from a partial knee replacement and Jersey Hospice Care’s Senior Nurse, Margaret McGovern suddenly appeared before my bed saying I was too ill to go home and inviting me to stay at Clarkson House for a few days. The thought of going into a hospice was suddenly thrown into my lap and I was filled with dread thinking "oh my god, that’s where people go to die". However, I took her up on her invite and it was a wonderful. I was looked after so well, given lots of attention and some lovely food. After several sessions in the jacuzzi bath I felt very good and when my wife returned, I was well enough to go home as well.

Since then I’ve had to have blood transfusions every six weeks, as the radiotherapy has made me anemic. I’ve had a couple of them in hospital and a couple at Clarkson House; they give me more energy and make me feel less tired until I begin to go down-hill again. I also came in once for a week when my wife was quite run down, to give her a rest. I wasn’t particularly ill, just very tired and that was a really wonderful little release for us both because there’s a lot of stress involved when you’re not well yourself and trying to look after someone else at the same time.

The Home Care team are great – in the height of snow last Christmas, they were like snowmen traipsing out of their cars to visit and they always ring before they come.

I know I’ve not got long. I am living life but I’m more serious than I used to be. That said, there’s a super atmosphere at Clarkson House; everyone is so helpful and kind - the nurses couldn’t be kinder in fact and the two chefs are very good. Jersey Hospice Care is also a jolly, happy place with lots of laughter and I don’t object to that at all. Normally one imagines a hospice to be quite a sombre place, somewhere you go to be made comfortable before you die. I’d never thought about it in terms of somewhere offering respite care.