Continuing the 12 Days of Christmas campaign highlighting the work of East Lancashire Hospice, today we are looking at one patient’s personal experience of the Hospice at Home service

Safina Sawar from Blackburn has been supported by East Lancashire Hospice for the past nine months having been initially referred by her District Nurse after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 2020.

Since then, Safina has been visited by the Hospice at Home Team on a fortnightly basis which she finds to be of huge benefit describing the team as “absolutely amazing and wonderful people who will go out of their way for her”.

Hospice at home support can reduce feelings of social isolation and open up opportunities for individuals to talk openly about how they are feeling. Safina chooses to spend her time with members of the team watching movies.

Safina has been someone who has always been involved in volunteering and fundraising - prior to her diagnosis, Safina volunteered for two years at the Bangor Street Disability Café in Blackburn.

There she supported children with disabilities to cook as well as cooking for the wider community and she recalls how she would prepare a fusion of foods including stir fry, biryani, chicken parmesan and lamb dishes to name but a few!

Prior to this, Safina volunteered for a number of years alongside the ladies from the Little Harwood Community Centre Curry Club.

More recently at the end of November, Safina once again put her fundraising skills to good use and organised a coffee morning complete with freshly-made samosas in aid of the Hospice at Home Team which raised a fantastic £184.

And Safina isn’t finished yet, with plans to stage another event, this time with chicken curry and rice which she’s hoping will take place after Christmas.

The Hospice at Home Team is part of the Community Services at the hospice, which also consists of Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), Co-ordinators, Health Care Assistants and Volunteers.

The team visits patients in their own homes to complement the care and support received from GPs, district nurses and other health and social care services to help improve quality of life, build independence and confidence and promote a feeling of wellbeing and control for individuals and those that matter to them.

Support from the Hospice at Home team is available across Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

For any more information please do call to speak to the Community Team on 01254 287028.

If you would like to support East Lancashire Hospice this Christmas by making a donation, you can do so by visiting www.eastlancshospice.org.uk/christmas or alternatively by calling our Fundraising Team on (01254) 287014