DESPERATE PLEA AS HOSPICE CHARITY FACES £12M BLACK HOLE
A TERMINALLY ill grandmother last night begged the public to save palliative care services relied upon by thousands of people.
Leading charity Sue Ryder yesterday warned it will have to close hospices and end hospice-at-home services unless it receives extra cash immediately.
The organisation, which supports the dying, will have a £12million black hole over the next three months unless it can boost its income, bosses revealed.
Mother-of-two Vicky Kaley told the Daily Express how the charity is her “lifeline” and helped her to see the birth of her first granddaughter, Lily, last July.
Vicky, 49, worked as a nursing assistant at Sue Ryder’s Manorlands Hospice for 15 years until she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2018.
She receives regular visits from a Sue Ryder nurse and also spent two weeks as an inpatient at Sue Ryder Manorlands. She told the
Daily Express she feared she would die this time last year.
Asked about the potential loss of vital services from the charity, Vicky said: “It is terrifying, I’m literally shaking, if there is not that back-up. It is such a shame it has come to this. They are my lifeline.”
Vicky, of Haworth, West Yorks, thanked the doctors, consultants, physiotherapists and nurses who have helped her “set new goals”.
Heidi Travis, chief executive at Sue Ryder, said: “We have been calling on the Government to support us but no funding has materialised. The country will lose its hospices at a time when they are needed most.
“We are a critical front-line support service in the fight against coronavirus yet we are on the brink of closure.
“We are asking the public to give whatever you can afford to help us to help those who need it most.”