People urged to back summer raffle to support hospice ‘unique care’

The daughters of a musician who spent his final days at St Giles Hospice are calling on people to support the charity by backing its summer raffle.

Claire Barton and her sister Melanie Floyd say that their family would not have made it through their dad’s illness without the help of St Giles.

Claire said: “We are so thankful that St Giles were there for us and they were involved every step of the way during dad’s last months at home and then in the hospice. We will always be so very grateful.

“I hope people will support the St Giles Hospice Summer Raffle. At any moment you could find out that a family member or a friend needs the support of St Giles. It’s our community’s hospice and I want to ensure that it is there in future for families like ours.”

Claire and Melanie’s parents Sue and David – known as ‘Chas’ – Chandler moved back to Lichfield in April 2019 after living in Wales for 13 years. During the previous Christmas the family had all noticed that Chas’s behavior seemed to have changed, and after watching him struggle to cope with the house move Claire and Melanie encouraged him to seek medical help. 

Chas, 72, was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer and was put in touch with the St Giles Hospice community team.

Claire said: “Our community nurses, Amy and Katie, were amazing and we couldn’t have managed without them. They organised a care package so mum could look after dad at home.

“After six months of being cared for at home, dad was transferred to the Inpatient Unit at the hospice for the last few days of his life. Amy and Katie made sure that the timing was right for him to go into the hospice, and when they told him he gave us all the thumbs-up, which was his only way of communicating with us by then.

“As soon as we arrived at the hospice we knew he was in the best place, with someone there to help him and us at all times. It was so calm and peaceful and the sense of security, safety and love was just such a massive relief.”

Claire added that her dad received “truly unique care” at St Giles before his death in November 2019. “He was a musician and the nurses would talk to him about his music and listen together to CDs of him playing,” she said. “It was all about the music for him and they tuned in to that and allowed him to share his gift with them, which was lovely for him.”

It costs more than £10 million to provide the care St Giles offers every year and the hospice needs to raise £850,000 each month to keep its services going and continue to support more local families living with a terminal illness.

Tickets for the hospice summer raffle are now on sale at £1 each and prizes up for grabs include a jackpot of £8,000, a second prize of £2,000 and other cash prizes.

Alison Jerram, Individual Giving Manager at St Giles Hospice, said: “We are asking our local community play our 2021 summer raffle – it’s an easy way to support St Giles while also having a bit of fun, with the chance to win fabulous cash prizes.

“With so much of our fundraising continuing to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, our summer raffle is a vital source of income for St Giles. Every ticket sold in our raffle will help to ensure we can continue to be there for local people like Chas and his family when they need us most. 

“Tickets are now on sale and we are so grateful to our community for continuing to support us.”

Anyone wanting to enter the draw can find out more or buy raffle tickets online until midnight on Wednesday, June 30 at www.stgileshospice.com/raffle or by calling the Lottery Office on 01543 434020. The raffle draw will be made on Wednesday, July 14.

For more information about St Giles Hospice and the expert care it provides, please visit www.stgileshospice.com

Phone taken in Sutton town centre

Police are anxious to trace these two youths after a 16-year-old boy was robbed of his mobile phone while waiting for a bus in Sutton Coldfield town centre.

Officers have launched an appeal, asking the public if they recognise the two youths.

Police want to talk to them about the robbery which took place at the Number 5 bus stop on Lower Parade in the town on 8 April at around 4.10pm.

The 16-year-old had his mobile taken by two youths, who later boarded the same No 5 bus as the boy.

The pair were wearing face masks and had hoodies up.

One was descried as 5ft 6ins, wearing a light grey tracksuit with grey trainers. The other was 6ft 3ins, wearing a dark blue hoody and blue jeans.

The pair got off the bus at Duke Street.

Police have asked witnesses to call them on 101 quoting 20/153282/21.

Weapon found as police launch Operation Sceptre

Police in Sutton Coldfield have recovered a knife from the town’s railway station as part of a week-long campaign.

Knife crime is a serious issue in many parts of the country and has tragic consequences and creates too many victims.

West Midlands Police are conducting Operation Sceptre and the week long campaign will see officers conducting weapon sweeps, knife arch operations , and extra high visibility patrols.

They have been working alongside colleagues from the British Transport. The knife was recovered on Monday morning by neighbourhood team officers from Sutton Coldfield who say the knife taken off the street will help make journeys safer.

Police are urging the public to play their part and remain vigilant and made the following appeal:

• If you see ,or suspect some one has a knife then call 999.
• If you find a knife, make a note of its location and report this immediately.
• If you think some one you know may be considering getting involved with knife crime, or has contacts with those that are then report this to the police or visit: http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org 

Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111

Collaboration highlights experiences of Sutton Coldfield people living with multiple sclerosis

Sutton Coldfield people directly affected by multiple sclerosis (MS) have told their stories and offered their honest insights into living with the condition in a new book.

Collected Stories: Living with Multiple Sclerosis has been developed to provide a learning resource for health professionals across the UK and was released during National MS Awareness Week (19-25th April, 2021).

The book is one of the outputs from a research project carried out by St Giles Hospice, Keele University and members of the hospice’s MS support group.  

The project began in 2018 and involved focus groups and interviews designed to help understand the experiences of people with MS in accessing hospice care and support. It was conducted by Professor Sue Read and Teaching Fellow Dr Sotirios Santatzoglou from Keele University, Dr Emma Hodges from St Giles Hospice and participants from the hospice’s MS groups based in Whittington and Sutton Coldfield.

Following the study, the research team were so inspired by the experiences the group shared that they spoke to participants about how they might want to share their stories more widely. 

Professor Read said: “I have been involved in the production of books previously as a way of sharing important life experiences and supporting healthcare professionals to learn and reflect on their practice.  The group wanted to have their voices heard so they asked us to support them. It was a pleasure to help them do that as an outcome of the research.

“The book incorporates a wonderful, unique collection of stories that provides powerful insights into the impact that multiple sclerosis has on the individual, their families and professional carers.”

Contributors include people living with the condition along with volunteers and staff at St Giles Hospice. The book also features a foreword written by community historian Professor Carl Chinn, who offers a moving account of his childhood experience of living with his own grandfather who was diagnosed with MS in the 1950s.

The powerful testimonies in the book feature the life stories of several people diagnosed with MS, highlighting their different experiences, the philosophies and coping mechanisms that have helped them through the years and the actions of the wider community that have helped or hindered their daily lives.

An exercise instructor working with the MS groups at St Giles and a hospice member of staff have also contributed to the collection, revealing how their own preconceptions have been challenged by their experiences and the insights they have gained as a result.

“We didn’t intend to pull together this collection of stories from the beginning of the research project – it simply evolved as stories often do in life. Little did we know the work that it would entail, or the impact that these stories would have on those people involved and those listening to the stories.” – Professor Sue Read

Dr Emma Hodges, CEO of St Giles Hospice, said: “Research is a small but important part of our strategy at St Giles. We support a range of national research studies and also design our own in order to improve patient care and/or community support for people with a terminal illness.  In all of our research we aim to proactively involve the people we support.

“We are extremely grateful to members of the St Giles MS groups who shared their stories with us and wrote with such thoughtfulness, dignity and compassion. We hope that their candour and wisdom will help us to better understand their individual and varied experiences of MS and to shape our services more effectively to support their needs.

“We also hope that their insights will be useful to professionals in the wider community as they learn from the real MS experts – the people who are living with the condition every day of their lives.”

For more details of the book or to buy a printed copy or downloadable version, visit www.stgileshospice.com/MS-book

All proceeds from the sale of Collected Stories: Living with Multiple Sclerosis will support St Giles Hospice and help fund vital care for local people and families living with a terminal illness.

For more information about St Giles Hospice and the expert care it provides, please visit www.stgileshospice.com

For further information or for any media enquiries please contact gary.young@stgileshospice.com or Gary Young on 07855 926123.