‘Having a care worker took away some stress’

care; 6. Every community is prepared to help. For more information, see

We live in a world where checklists have helped to improve patient safety. But for people facing the last stage of their life, and those who love them, it is crucial that we make their care as personalised and responsive to their needs and wishes as possible. Each person is unique and one size does not fit all. This is an abridged version of a Jewish Care Health Insight lecture given last week. Prof Bee Wee is the national clinical director for end of life care, NHS England, and consultant in palliative medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

MUM, OR Ima as we called her in our native Hebrew, adopted the UK as her home back in 1982.

We both took up British nationalities with tremendous pride and made this our home too.

Cancer hit Ima in 1992. The journey has been vicious for more than 24 years, fighting five cancers which came and went.

The last 24 months were the harshest. Brain surgery, chemo, radiations, heart attack and CyberKnife robotic surgery. There was seemingly no end.

All treatments ceased in March in total agreement between the medical team, Mum and us.

As spring arrived and Mum’s battle became more fierce, we resorted to Hospice At Home care, heavy morphine and 24/7 help.

Ima never gave up hope and neither did we, though sadly the inevitable was coming and we all felt it.

We said goodbye to Ima hundreds of times during these 24 months. We also helped her express her wishes — connecting back to our Jewish roots was important and that is where Jewish Care came in.

We contacted Jewish Care’s helpline via an email and explained our personal journey and simply asked for help. We were assigned a social worker with experience in end-of-life care.

She was an empathetic, human, caring, listening, spiritual, pragmatic “air traffic” controller, who represented what being Jewish is all about. The bottom line is having her around took some of the stress off our minds, helped us navigate the system and ensured we were providing Mum with the best care and service that was possible.

She introduced Ima to a synagogue and connected her a rabbi who she felt comfortable with.

July 1 was the last time Ima was conscious and coherent enough to eat by herself and manage a conversation with all of us. Three days later she selfadmitted to a hospice.

Our Jewish Care social worker was with us all through the journey. Sadly, on July 21 nature and God took our Ima to heaven.

The support we have received has helped us tremendously through this extremely difficult time.