Celebrating the Isabel Hospice: 'There's laughter and happiness here too'

To mark this year’s 30th anniversary of Isabel Hospice, which offers vital support to local families during a difficult time, the Observer is running a monthly page of news from the facility. Here, following a special visit, reporter James Burton describes some of the incredible work being done

Nurses and volunteer staff at the Isabel Hospice

“WHEN people come here, they’re often surprised as they’re expecting a place of doom and gloom, but it’s not like that at all. There’s laughter and happiness here, and it offers some kind of normality in what isn’t such a normal situation.”

In the light, spacious lounge of the Isabel Hospice’s inpatient unit, lead nurse Leia van der Niet is proudly explaining the services the charity offers – and the vital difference it makes to terminally ill patients in their final days.

Leia speaks with passion about the importance of residents’ comfort and dignity – and as a tour of the facility proves, that holistic philosophy is reflected in every element of its design.

From the beautiful courtyard garden and well-equipped physiotherapy room to the colourful children’s play area for family visits, everything is geared towards patients’ all-round wellbeing as well as looking after their loved ones.

Accommodating up to 14 patients across 11 rooms, Isabel’s inpatient unit cares for over-18s across east Hertfordshire with life-limiting illnesses. Many suffer with terminal cancer, although there are also patients with conditions like end-stage dementia, kidney failure and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Unlike many hospitals, the Isabel Hospice recognises the wider impact on families and does everything it can to help relatives, providing overnight accommodation in dedicated bedrooms and offering counselling for months or even years after a bereavement.

Patients have access to a wide range of services that cater for both their physical and psychological needs, from simple emotional support to a range of therapies and social activities. While many stay at the centre until the end, about a third are discharged home if their condition allows it.

And there’s far more to the hospice, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, than its inpatient base in the grounds of Welwyn Garden City’s QE2 hospital.

As well as running satellite day centres in Standon and at the Barnabas Centre in Thorley, just outside Bishop’s Stortford, the charity offers a Hospice at Home service throughout its catchment area and a 24-hour advice line for anyone needing support or advice.

Serving more than 300 inpatients annually, not to mention thousands of day visitors and home visits, the charity needs some £4.5m a year to keep running – a cost which continues to rise amid the UK’s ongoing economic turmoil.

A significant chunk of this cash comes from local fund-raising, from everyday individual donations to five-figure sums collected at charity balls. Ultimately, as director Helen Dodd explains, the hospice is dependent on the community’s generosity to keep up its invaluable work.

Originally a district nurse in Enfield, Helen joined the Isabel Hospice 20 years ago and got her first assignment in the heart of the Observer area. Two decades on, and 10 years after her first promotion to community team manager, she still recalls those early days fondly.

She said: “My passion was always for looking after patients at the end of their lives, and when I saw a job come up at the hospice it was an obvious thing for me to apply for, especially because of the community aspect.

“It was a lovely time – I absolutely loved it out there. I was based at Standon and and was attached to GPs in Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and Much Hadham. I did visiting work in homes, supporting patients and working with the doctors and district nurses.”

When Helen signed up, the inpatient unit had only been up and running for two years. However, the charity’s roots stretch back considerably further – and its beginnings were altogether less high-profile.

Inspired by late Guy’s Hospital nurse Isabel Last, who defied doctors’ predictions to bounce back from a supposedly terminal illness, it was launched by Isabel and a group of like-minded colleagues in 1982. Unable to secure public cash, it instead pressed ahead with a series of public meetings – the first of which raised £150, and the next of which raised £200 – before becoming a registered charity in 1984. A day unit followed two years later.

In 1988, the Isabel Hospice – then known as the Hospice-Care Service For East Hertfordshire – launched an £800,000 appeal for its inpatient unit. Building work started a year later, with 80s icon Kim Wilde digging the first piece of turf, and the first patients arrived in 1990.

Some 30 years on from its inception, the organisation has built up a well-oiled fund-raising machine with a dedicated team based at a separate head office in Welwyn Garden City. The building, which it moved into three years ago, also houses a massive warehouse where donations for its 11 shops – including one in Bishop’s Stortford’s Bridge Street – are sorted and priced before being sent out. To keep costs down, it relies heavily on volunteers – from front-desk staff and therapists to office support roles, many of the faces who keep the Isabel Hospice ticking over give their time for free. Some have been doing so for decades; at least one volunteer has been helping out for 25 years.

Thanks to its wide presence in the community, felt not just through its shops and fund-raising events but its local outreach network, it has become familiar even to those who have not used its services – which makes going to stay there far easier for those contemplating it.

Helen said: “For patients coming into the inpatient unit, it’s not necessarily so difficult. 10 years ago, people didn’t always want to whereas now you see that much less.

“It’s still a difficult time, but the fact that we’ve got all our volunteers working in the community takes the edge off it. It’s amazing how many lives the hospice has touched, not necessarily directly but indirectly through friends of friends.”

Isabel Hospice is running several fund-raising challenges this year, including a Midnight Swim event at two Hertfordshire pools in March and a number of overseas treks.

To find out more, visit www.isabelhospice.org.uk.