Widow praises cancer care staff in new short film

A HEARTBROKEN widow has spoken for the first time about the incredible support her husband received in the final moments of his life.

Yvonne Peters, from Pontyclun, near Llantrisant, lost husband John last year after he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer.

Now, as part of a special short film, she has paid tribute to their Macmillan nurse and staff at the Y Bwthyn palliative care unit in Pontypridd Cottage Hospital for their excellent care.

“Our Macmillan nurse was one of the best things that happened to us and the staff at Y Bwthyn were absolutely brilliant,” said Yvonne.

“They were so welcoming and sensitive to the situation. John died very quickly after he’d arrived at Y Bwthyn and everything was in place.

“They pulled all the stops out for John as did we as a family and he got what he wanted.”

Yvonne also spoke in the Macmillan film about her hopes for the new palliative care unit Macmillan Cancer Support and National Garden Scheme are building at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in partnership with Cwm Taf University Health Board.

The eight-bed Y Bwthyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit will provide specialist care for people with incurable cancer and other conditions in a welcoming and comfortable environment.

The new unit will mean patients can access certain tests and treatments in the same place rather than need a 20-minute ambulance journey they face each way if being cared for at the current Y Bwthyn unit in Pontypridd.

Retired nurse Yvonne is a member of the group which is planning the state-ofthe-art unit and brings to the table her nursing background together with her and John’s experience of palliative care.

Yvonne, who is fundraising towards the new unit as a member of the Macmillan Pontyclun and District fundraising group, said: “The new unit won’t be your normal hospital build.

“Everyone involved understands terminally ill patients and their needs.

“The unit will also have facilities for relatives to stay or to break away into other rooms if they need a bit of space.

“I think these lovely facilities will certainly make a difference to staff and for the people who are there.”

Macmillan is donating £5m towards the £7m unit, £2.5m of which has been donated to the project by the National Garden Scheme.

The further £2m for the unit has been given by the Welsh Government via its All Wales Capital Programme.

The building work for the unit started in November 2017 and it is hoped it will open its doors in May next year.

As part of its long-standing support for Macmillan services across the UK, the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) has donated £2.5m towards the unit.

To date, NGS has donated almost £17m to Macmillan to support people living with cancer.

These funds have been raised by NGS opening more than 3,800 private gardens for charity across the UK.