When 81-year-old Richard Chamings was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2024, his wife & tight-knit family navigated months of chemotherapy, hospital appointments and tests by his side, before being referred to North Devon Hospice for end of life support.
Daughter Paula told us “Dad wanted to be supported in the comfort of his own home, surrounded by his family. The fact the hospice could facilitate that for us was incredible. We were all able to carry on as usual and be around Dad whenever we wanted to be. My brothers & I could pop in to sit with him and put some of his favourite music on to help him relax.”
Paula continues “The hospice to home team were coming in frequently to help Dad with symptoms and to ensure he was comfortable. They took it to another level for us, they were so caring, calm and gentle. It made us feel like they had all the time in the world to sit with us as a family and explain things, that had previously been a bit of a minefield of medical terms and overwhelming terminology.”
“Something about the word ‘hospice’ makes you feel like it’s a hard thing to admit you need at the time, but the level of support and love is just incredible – it’s never too soon in a diagnosis to get a referral. The care is second to none, there is a level of empathy that just goes unsaid when you have a visit from the hospice to home team. It goes beyond just functional support, there is definitely something just a little bit more special to it. It’s a vocation and not just a job.”
“Being able to say that dad’s life ended in exactly the way he wanted, is something I’ll forever be grateful to the hospice for. We are a big family and we were all able to be there and watch him slip away, the way he wanted. It was so beautiful and we all stood together in the room afterwards just being together in that moment. We could not have asked for anything more, and neither could dad. There was such a tangible difference to being supported by the hospice to die at home.”
Paula concludes “The privilege of being able to be with Dad at the end is beyond words. Just time alone together as a family, even in the silence, with the knowing safety net of the hospice team being on hand was so special for us all.”
