We began supporting Mike and Linda when the complex comorbidities Mike had lived with for several years worsened and life became more challenging for them both.

Linda said: “I knew life would never be the same, and Mike needed a lot of backup. … for myself, I needed someone I could reach out to as and when – and the Hospice has been there.”

Our nurses visit Mike regularly at home, have helped install a ramp to make life easier, and are always at the end of the phone when Linda needs them.

“Mike has been very happy with the staff that have come out to see him. It has been seamless, really… It gives you a sense of feeling that you are not alone. That you can just pick up the phone… and there is always somebody there.

It’s transformed my life as well as Mike’s.”

As well as supporting Mike and Linda with Mike’s care at home, our nursing team help to ensure they can enjoy quality time together. The picture above was taken on a special day out to Shotley Marina, made possible by Mike’s nursing team.

On the day, Linda said: “We can’t thank the Hospice charity enough. They have enabled us to be here (in Shotley), our favourite place on a beautiful day, and it’s made a vast difference to us.

“Mike has literally been housebound for three weeks; for two weeks, he’s been in bed. Occasionally I’ve been able to get him into a wheelchair.”

Enabling special moments like this can make a huge different to the mental and physical health of the patient and their loved-ones too.

By becoming a Hospice Guardian today, you can help ensure specialist support is readily available for people like Mike and Linda when they need it.

When John was diagnosed with lung cancer he and his wife Jo were told it was stage four.

When John’s pain became too difficult to control, a hospital doctor recommend contacting the Hospice. Soon after, John, Jo and their young daughter, Maddie, joined us on our ward.

Jo remembers: “The minute we walked through the door we were overwhelmed with a sense of peace and comfort. It’s such a happy, friendly place. We walked in and it was like we were at home.

Before he moved to the Hospice, I had been his nurse. I had done everything. I don’t think I had realised just how much time that had taken from us, how much time together we had lost.

I’ll never forget him turning to me when he was in the Hospice and saying, “you can be my wife now, not my nurse”. As well as so, so much else, that’s what the Hospice gave me – the chance to be a wife again. They gave us the gift of time together and we soaked it up.

We were able to spend time with our three-year-old daughter Madeleine as a family. Maddie loved being at the Hospice, as well as looking after her Dad; the staff looked after us all.

When he did pass, I’d always expected it would be dramatic, but it wasn’t, it was beautiful, it couldn’t have been more perfect if he’d have written it himself.

The last thing he said to me was that he loved me, one of the nurses put his arm around me and he passed, it was beautiful.

I always say that the Hospice staff and volunteers are angels, to me they always will be, for those precious few weeks they gave me my husband back, and they gave our daughter her Daddy. I will be forever grateful.”