Help for the helpless

2:36pm Monday 14th May 2001

TWO Greenwich University lecturers are using their expertise to reduce suffering in a Romanian hospice.

The Casa Sperantei hospice, in Brasov, Romania, run by five doctors and 10 nurses, cares for more than 400 adults and children suffering from cancer, every year.

The work of the team, funded by the Ellenor Foundation shops in Bexley, Dartford and Gravesend, is taking place in patients' homes while a hospice, paid for by the foundation, is being built.

Nurses are receiving palliative care training from Greenwich University lecturers Rhona Meek and Julie Payne so they can teach others within the Romanian health service.

Rhona, who first visited the hospice in 1997, said: “There is nothing provided once you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The health service as it is just wipes its hands of you. All they have is their families.

“A patient who cannot pay may not receive the drugs or treatment he needs, but at the hospice no one is turned away or is expected to pay.”

As well as helping train staff, they are trying to raise money to buy simple equipment called sliders, which will make the moving and handling of patients easier.

Julie explained: “There is no such equipment in Romania and if we could purchase a variety of sliders for the team it would make such a difference. A basic slider only costs £10, so every little helps.”

Ellenor Foundation spokesman Graham Perolls said: “Building the hospice has cost £600,000 and it will be the first in-patient hospice in the whole of Romania. It will be very important in terms of teaching and training people how to care.”

Donations should be sent to Rhona Meek or Julie Payne at the School of Health, University of Greenwich, Avery Hill Campus, Bexley Road, Eltham, SE9 2PQ. Cheques payable to the Ellenor Foundation.

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