Hospice appeals for help with raising funds for new facilities
Families have been sharing how Overgate Hospice has helped them in their time of need as it appeals for help creating a state-of-the-art new building.
An official launch of the public phase of the hospice’s Big Build appeal – a campaign to raise £12.75 million to build a new inpatient unit and modernise the day hospice at their site in Elland – was held at Dean Clough’s Crossley Gallery,
Five years of private fundraising has allowed the hospice to reach £9.7m of the funds needed and the charity is now appealing to the people of Calderdale to help raise the final £3m.
The Big Build will involve creating a new 16-bed inpatient unit and updated day hospice.
Tracey Wilcocks, CEO of Overgate Hospice, said: “At the moment we have 12 beds, we’ve got shared wards, only two bathrooms and very little family space.
"Our new hospice will provide 16 beds – all with en suite facilities, all with access to garden terraces. It will mean we can care for more people – almost double the amount of people – we’ll have increased family space, meaning families can stay over and spend time with their loved ones.
Hannah and Amy Sharp spent seven-and-a-half weeks at the hospice last summer with their mum before she died. They said the new site would have given them more privacy and allow them to have difficult conversations with a doctor and their mum without feeling uncomfortable and hearing other conversations.
"When you know what’s imminent for yourselves, it’s quite hard to listen to other families going through it at the same time,” they said.
“[Having a private room] would have made it feel even more like home than what it already does because you could just have that space to make it totally your own.”
Verna Webber, an Overgate Hospice trustee, used the hospice’s services when her husband chose to go there for end-of-life care five years ago. She said: “As a family unit, we would have been absolutely lost without Overgate and all the people that work there and support everybody.