Sessions will provide vital support in community

Our Hospice will officially launch its Botesdale Open House on Thursday, 6 October.

The Botesdale Open House sessions, which are held on the first Thursday of the month from 10am to midday, offer support to those receiving end-of-life care and their loved ones, with staff and volunteers on hand to greet visitors and answer any questions they may have.

Hospice Nurse Ursula Noyce said: “Our Open House sessions are a friendly environment, a place where people can, if they would like, share their experiences.

“It can also for some act as an introduction to our Hospice services, a place where they can come and be signposted to further help and support. We create a welcoming environment where people feel relaxed and comfortable.”

The Open House sessions, which take place at the Botesdale Health Centre, Backs Hills, further open up the Hospice’s care to the community, providing physical, emotional and spiritual support.

Anna Cullinane, a grandmother of 13 with four great grandchildren, has been coming to the Hospice’s Bury St Edmund’s Open House for more than four years.

In 2011 at the age of 72 Anna was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer of the bone marrow.

Learn more about our Open Houses here.

When I was diagnosed - I just gave up. I thought that was it. My middle son Michael however had other ideas, he had found out about the Hospice and he brought me along.  I didn't really want to go as I believed I was going to die and that was that. But my son insisted, he said you are going and that’s that. My daughter also came along to support me.

Now 77, Anna, says coming along to the Open House sessions and finding out more about the Hospice’s services changed her life.

Anna said: “Coming to the Open House encouraged me to come out of myself again, I had retreated inwards when I was first diagnosed.

“I didn’t want to leave the house and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Coming to open house changed that, it gave me the chance to meet people, to socialise and to get out of the house.”

Anna, who has also become a keen fundraiser for the Hospice said she would encourage anyone thinking about attending an open house to come along.

“For anyone who maybe unsure about attending an open house session – I would tell them just to do it – I would tell them I would pick them up and bring them.

“Open House was there when I had given up and I am so very grateful it was,” she said.