‘Dad couldn’t have had better care anywhere’
GRIEVING SOAP STAR PRAISES HOSPICE
SOAP star Bill Ward has praised the Newcastle hospice which cared for his dad during his last weeks.
Speaking after the death of his dad Nigel, the former Emmerdale and Coronation Street actor said the care from St Oswald’s Hospice had been “extraordinary”, adding: “As a family, we honestly don’t believe Dad could have been better cared for anywhere.”
And he appealed to people to support St Oswald’s own urgent need for help as the charitable hospice has seen its funding streams dry up during the Covid crisis.
The local actor told how his father, a wellknown former butcher in Newcastle who ran the RA Dodds chain, had suffered from prostate cancer and was transferred from the Freeman Hospital to St Oswald’s Hospice when it spread.
The dad-of-four, who also used to have his own butcher shop in the Great North Road and worked at the meat counter in Fenwick and at the Grainger Market, was at the hospice when the country went into lockdown and spent the last six weeks of his life there.
During that time he contracted – but recovered from – coronavirus, before his death from cancer in April at the age of 87, with his family able to be at his side.
Bill told how everyone at the hospice – the doctors, nurses, support staff and volunteers – looked after his dad with “skill, kindness and such humanity”, adding that they also “looked after all of us, as a family and for that we will always be grateful.”
The actor, a familiar face on both stage and TV with roles in Coronation Street as Charlie Stubbs; Emmerdale playing James Barton and this year in Ricky Gervais’ Afterlife,
has written a moving letter highlighting what he calls the “life, positivity, and the remarkable place that is St Oswald’s Hospice”.
And in a video message of thanks, he asks people to make a donation if they can.
It’s a time of extreme financial hardship for St Oswald’s which, as well as providing end-of-life care, supports young people with cancer and has an out-patients facility.
It also runs a Focus on Living centre, with courses and specialist services, and cares for people with respiratory, neurological, and cardiac conditions, not just cancer.
St Oswald’s receives around one-third of its annual funding from the Government but needs to find the rest – about £7.5m – from voluntary donations and fundraisers.
But Bill pointed out that, for months, it has had none of its usual means of fundraising, with sponsorship events cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis and its charity shops having been closed throughout lockdown.
To see Bill’s letter in full, go to www. stoswaldsuk.org/news/a-letter-from-billward. Those able to make a donation, or want to become a regular giver, can also find out how to do so at www.stoswaldsuk.org.