Celebrating Success: St David’s Hospice Care Annual Review 2023/2024
11th October 2024
By St David's Hospice Care
It’s been another remarkable year for St David’s Hospice Care filled with fantastic achievements, significant milestones and heartfelt dedication to our services.
On October 1st, we held our Annual General Meeting, attended by our chairman, staff, trustees and those from within the community. The AGM is always a great opportunity to bring everyone together to evaluate significant highlights, achievements and milestones that the Hospice has accomplished over the last year.
Attendees at the AGM were able to listen to speakers , who spoke about the Hospice’s services from a family perspective, and Chief Executive of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Nicola Prygodzicz. As we reflect on our recent annual review, we shine a light on these key achievements and share insights from staff, volunteers and the unwavering support from our community.
Our Mission: Caring for our Community
Our mission at St David’s Hospice Care is to provide specialist palliative care across Caerphilly, Newport, Monmouthshire, Torfaen and other areas of South and Mid Powys. We are proud to have continued dedicating ourselves to helping patients and families during challenging times.
We are delighted to have a team of staff who continue to demonstrate their commitment to fulfilling the mission of the Hospice on a daily basis. Ruth Jones, our Clinical Services Offices Manager, is one of the central figures in making sure the Hospice’s services run smoothly and whose passion for the ‘Hospice at Home’ service is at the heart of what we do.
To get more of an insight into the day in the life of Ruth, which includes liaising with families and coordinating with nurses to ensure high-quality patient care, and testimonials from patients download our St David’s Annual Review.
Milestones: Farewells and New Beginnings
As we draw near the end of 2024, we’re honoured to have celebrated many milestones here at St David’s Hospice Care – including the retirement of two of our much loved and long-serving staff members, Karen Hughes and Gill Tanner.
During her 22 years of dedicated service at the Hospice, Gill managed the Family Support Team and will leave a legacy after having developed the Unicorn Service, which offers vital bereavement support for children.
Karen, who has been a pivotal figure at our Hospice since the early days of hospice care in Gwent, recently retired after 25 years of dedicated service with us. She brought a substantial amount of knowledge, experience and care to her role which helped shape the Hospice’s care services.
Both women leave behind a huge legacy at St David’s Hospice Care, with their significant contributions to the development of the Hospice’s services having supported thousands of patients and their families. We would like to thank both Karen and Gill for their unwavering commitment to St David’s Hospice Care over the years and wish them well for their next chapters.
It has also been a poignant year at St David’s Hospice Care as we paid tribute to our beloved complementary therapist and former volunteer, Angela Canellas-Parish. Her care, kindness and compassion had an enormous effect on colleagues and patients, and she will be sadly missed. The Hospice held a memorial afternoon for Angela, and we are proud to have a tree onsite planted by her family in her memory.
Achieving Financial Success
Funding plays a significant part in functioning St David’s Hospice Care, with the Hospice needing £15,000 daily to help us provide our free services to those in need. We have been able to navigate the sails through the current financial pressures thanks to the generosity and support from the Welsh Government, local health boards, our community and fundraising events.
The Hospice were also delighted to receive a notable donation from Newport-based couple Wayne and Tracy Phillips, who showed their gratitude for the Hospice’s care services by donating £10,000 and then further generously funding a nurse’s salary for two years.
The donations and financial support we receive are a testament to your commitment to making a difference. We are pleased to have continued providing high-quality care services and end 2024 on a positive note.
Community Fundraising Achievements in 2023/2024
As a charity, St David’s Hospice Care greatly relies on community generosity of funding for the services we provide. We have had a fantastic year filled with fundraising events and community events, with each one playing a part in raising vital money for our Hospice.
Highlights from our successful fundraising efforts this year include 5k fun run ‘Bubble Dash’ in Cwmbran, featuring paint and water stations enjoyed by all ages, and ‘Moonlight Walk’ which saw crowds travel up Pen-Y Fan.
Our community fundraising events throughout 2023 and 2024 have also been a huge success and we are grateful staff, volunteers, and community members who participated in every way to make a difference for St David’s Hospice. These events have included ‘Big Welsh Brew’, ‘St David’s 2 St David’s’, the popular Christmas Fayre in addition to a sailing challenge and a skydiving challenge from one of our nurses.
Looking Ahead to 2024-2029
The future looks bright for St David’s Hospice Care as we’re excited to launch our new Strategic Plan for 2024-2029, with ambitious goals to expand our services and reach out to even more people in need of care.
Our key goals are to extend our care to diverse communities and to those who may not have access to our care, work together to build stronger collaborations with health care partners and develop our training within the Hospice.
We’re also excited to further invest in our hospice services, including the Hospice at Home service. We will do this by offering more flexibility and expanding our night team so that families have the option of caring for their loved ones at home during their final days.
For more information on St David’s Hospice Care’s achievements, and how we make a huge difference to people’s lives, download the full 2023/2024 Annual Review.
