Our History
The lightbulb moment
February 1984
A gentleman named Mr V Newby wrote a letter to the Sidmouth Herald, after seeing a television programme about the work of Dr Sheila Cassidy and her devoted staff at St Luke’s Hospice in Plymstock. He had watched with interest and admiration about this small Hospice which was opened and run entirely by the local community.
It gave help to patients enduring terminal illnesses and peace of mind to their relatives. Mr Newby wondered if such a project could be set up in Sidmouth and offered a modest sum to get it started, in the hope that a benefactor might come forward.
Early days
Mr Newby thought there must be many people in Sidmouth willing to raise funds to start a Hospice that would look after patients in the Sidmouth area. After his letter was published in the Herald, an invitation to attend a public meeting was sent to local societies and clubs. The consensus was that it a ’steering committee’ should be formed to explore the idea further. Dr Atkinson became Chairman, Eileen Bird became Secretary and Eileen Newby, Treasurer. Later, a full committee was established with volunteers and Margaret Huyshe became the first patron.
A hospice for Sidmouth is born
Fundraising began in earnest in response to the daunting task of raising £120,000 to find a nurse for the first few years.
Undeterred, many local organisations making Sidmouth’s new Hospice their fundraising project of the year while many local clubs staged fundraising events. Individuals sold their clothes and gave the money raised to the project, and Salcombe Regis donated the proceeds of their fair. The bowling club gave the money from their ‘Bowls Bonanza’, which they thought would raise around £250 but actually raised £1,000; a kind friend said she’d match the funding and kept her word, also pledging £1,000.
Thanks to the generosity of local residents, the money kept coming in which gave heart to the ‘two Eileens’ to keep going. They looked towards Macmillan Cancer Support prompting a promise that the charity would fund a nurse if they were given the money already raised. This idea was rejected due to the unanimous and strongly held belief that the money should be managed locally.
Support
Support was snowballing. Sidmouth Health Centre supported our efforts to establish aHospice service in the town and offered a small office at their Blackmore Drive base. Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund funded a nurse for three years. A local printer offered to create all the stationery free of charge and another donor offered to pay for all the postage costs.
When Eileen Newby was at a coffee morning, someone overheard her talking about the plans for a Hospice for Sidmouth and offered to give some money in memory of her mother who had just died of cancer and had wished that such a service had been available. Not long afterwards, Eileen was astounded to receive £10,000.
By September 1985 the process of becoming a Registered Charity was finalised. A board of Trustees was set up with the first Chairman, local GP Dr Atkinson, was established.
First nurses and volunteers
Kay Cheesman was our first nurse until 1987. Mary MacKinnon and Yvonne Wareham then joined as nurses, supported by a team of volunteers run by Christine Crabtree and her deputy Mavis Browning, who would tackle anything that the nurses felt would help the patients and their families. Meanwhile, Mr Browning helped with investments of funds and income tax.
Mary worked for Sidmouth’s new hospice for 13 years as a Specialist Palliative Care Nurse since 1987 and looks back fondly at her time with us:
“It was the most rewarding and fulfilling job and very enjoyable because you meet such nice people. As well as dealing with grief you also have a lot of joy with families and patients. They include you in their happy times. Part of our job is to lift people up and in doing so you share all their despair but also their hopes. Some people do associate us only with death, but it is not just a question of dying, it is also a question of living. While we cannot get away from the fact that death is undeniably part of it, I think that a lot of our work is about building up a trusting relationship, so they know that we are there to help them through.”
Seven years after Mary’s retirement, her daughter Rachael followed in her mother’s footsteps and after a career in Oncology at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital became a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Sidmouth’s Hospice where she remained for 14 years until she retired. Rachael is now a Trustee of the Charity offering her expert knowledge and extensive experience of palliative nursing care to the Board.
Legacies
Sidmouth couple, Mr & Mrs Griffiths left us a sum of money to be specifically used to help those in need when suffering a life-threatening illness, realising that many people are unable to work and fund their lives as normal. This fund is still in existence and has helped patients in myriad ways including paying for rent, therapies, holidays, telephone bills and school uniforms.
May Terrace
In 1987 Sidmouth Hospice at Home was left a house in All Saints Road, Sidmouth, by Miss Keel. Although the property wasn’t suitable for our purposes and we were advised to sell it, the proceeds enabled us to buy our second property on May Terrace, named Keel House after Miss Keel. It was ideally placed opposite the Sidmouth Victoria Hospital and close to Blackmore Health Centre.
In summer 2008, some structural work was needed on the property and the Trustees took the opportunity to have May Terrace refurbished to make it suitable premises for the employees and visitors. Hugo Swire MP attended the opening and alongside some of our original nurses and Trustees.
May Terrace remained our base, for our nurses, office manager and volunteer coordinator, until 2022 when we relocated to Church Street, Sidford.
On-call Service
In 2007 it was felt that there was a great need for an overnight service and, in April more nurses were employed to join the existing one to enable them to provide this service.
Charity Status
The Trustees decided that it would be beneficial to transfer the charity to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The new CIO was established on August 9, 2013. All undertakings were transferred to this CIO and a new branding was introduced.
New HQ and Day Centre
In November 2017 the Charity purchased the old Sidford Surgery on Church Street to meet the need for a new headquarters for the planned enhanced nursing services and a Day Centre for Sidmouth. The charity had spent a number of months looking for a building that couldmeet the increasing needs and had an opportunistic discussion with Ian Barlow, the owner of the building, in late August.
Planning permission had been granted for the building to be demolished and for six affordable houses to be built on the site. The bulldozers were booked for September 4th. After discussing the needs of the Charity and the potential for the old surgery to meet these needs, Ian held off the bulldozers for the Trustees to consider the situation. The purchase was then completed on November 13th.
Plans were subsequently developed for refurbishment and an extension to the building and planning permission obtained. Development of the project was prolonged for several years due to fundraising challenges and the Covid Pandemic.
New Integrated Model of Care
Since 1985, the Charity has been offering care and support to people in the Sid Valley with a life limiting illness (diagnosed as palliative), their carers and families. This has included commissioning and funding a specialist nursing team and hospice beds from a hospice in Exeter for patients with complex needs.
In May 2020, the Trustees approved the implementation of a new Integrated Model of Care, with the Specialist Palliative Nursing Service transitioning to being provided by the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, commissioned and funded by Sidmouth Hospice at Home.
It was recognised that the demand for these services was expected to increase significantly due to the ageing population, with most patients wanting to remain in their own homes. It was also recognised that Sidmouth was at the forefront of this challenge in the UK, due to the town’s high percentage of over 60s and over 85s. Sidmouth’s Hospice had been working with local GPs and the RD&E to understand the needs of palliative patients in the Sid Valley, including those who do not require complex nursing but who need support.
It was therefore agreed to implement the Sid Valley Integrated Model for Palliative and End of Life Care For All, with the aim of integrating the available services within the community into a “one-team” approach to provide the best possible care for all patients who are diagnosed by their GP as palliative, regardless of diagnosis or complexity, guided by the individual needs and wishes of the patient and their carer.
At the heart of this model was a Palliative Nursing Team, funded by Sidmouth Hospice at Home and managed by the RD&E in Sidmouth, providing 24/7 specialist palliative care when needed. In this new model, the nurses would provide continuity of care for all palliative patients and their families.
The service would include: specialist symptom control for complex patients; hospice at home nursing care to enable more patients to remain in their own homes and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions; psychological and emotional support for all patients and families; coordination and oversight of wider community support to meet the individual needs of each patient and their family.
Zoe Harris, RD&E Divisional Director Community Services, commented:
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Sidmouth Hospice at Home to provide this service. It builds upon the existing palliative care and expertise which has been in place for many years. This new approach will not only give people and their families more choice and control, at what can be such a difficult and emotional time, but also ensures that tailored, individual end of life support is available at home and in the local community for all those who need it.”
First CEO appointed
In 2016 the Trustees identified significant challenges ahead, particularly regarding increasing needs, and appointed a CEO to develop the charity.
Vision and Aims
In 2017, the Trustees developed a vision for the way forward, together with a set of values and strategic aims. It was recognised that there was a need to develop a new model of care to enhance the services provided to patients and carers, to enable more patients to remain in their preferred place of care (generally their own home) and to have the best possible quality of life. This included consideration of the benefits of enhancing the services to include hospice at home nursing and a day centre in Sidmouth.
New name – Sidmouth Hospice at Home
In November 2020 we changed our name to Sidmouth Hospice at Home, to reflect the change from commissioning and funding the specialist nursing service from the previous service andto avoid any confusion.
A competition was held, inviting people in the community to suggest a new name. The Trustees had much deliberation about which name to go for and decided upon Sidmouth Hospice at Home. The Charity had become well known and loved by many in the Sid Valley whose loved ones had benefitted from our care and support over the past 35 years. The Trustees wanted the new name to clearly reflect the change to our expanded range of services to be provided in partnership with RD&E.
The new name needed to reflect our overall aim: to provide tailored care and support to all people with life-limiting illnesses in the Sid Valley, and their families, to enable them to have the best quality of life and remain in their preferred place of care which is most often their own home. It also needed to reflect the introduction of an expanded nursing service to cover all palliative patients, including advanced dementia and frailty, and to provide specialist hospice at home nursing near the end of life to enable patients to remain in their own homes.
New Specialist Nursing Service
On January 25th, 2021 the new Sidmouth Hospice at Home Specialist Nursing Team successfully transitioned from the previous service, with all Sid Valley patients transferring to the new team. The recruitment of nurses and assistant practitioners into the team was very successful, with all appointees having many years of experience in palliative care.
Upon her appointment as the Manager of the new Specialist Nursing Team, Mary Ashby commented:
“My career in hospice nursing began over 25 years ago, working both on the in-patient wards and in the community services. As a student nurse, care of the dying had felt a special privilege, reflecting on the personal experiences of my Mother’s death. I feel honoured to be appointed as Nurse Manager of the new Sidmouth Hospice at Home Team, to be leading this pioneering, specialist end of life care service that is patient-centred and seamlessly part of our local community services.”
Building the Future
In August 2022 the Charity’s nursing, admin and volunteer teams moved from the cramped accommodation of Keel House to our newly refurbished HQ premises in Sidford. The building has been transformed from its former incarnation of GP surgery into a fit for purpose building to provide more care for people in our community and develop essential hospice services. The new building has coincided with an expansion in our signature 24/7 Hospice at Home specialist nursing service to address the local need and increased referrals so more families can have support in the comfort of their own homes. It has also allowed the charity to increase wellbeing, emotional care and bereavement support by offering private counselling rooms, a state-of-the art bathroom, spiritual space and comfortable Day Centre, complete with dining and kitchen facilities to welcome local patients for Wellbeing Days.