Quiet room maintains the memory of former patient
THE FAMILY of a leukaemia patient has raised £20,000 for a quiet room at the London hospital where he died four years ago at the age of 60.
Malcolm Hart’s widow, Ros, visited the new space at Hammersmith Hospital with her children, Lia, 21, and Ben, 24, last week.
The prospect of going back been “very hard”, she said, particularly as her children had not returned to the hospital since Mr Hart’s death. But greeted by ICU staff, “we calmed down once we got there”.
Mrs Hart, a Radlett Reform member, said the initiative was in partnership with the Imperial Health Charity and a result of the family’s experience during their hospital visits.
She recalled being in a waiting room with “people eating their kebabs, playing cards, laughing and joking.
“It was just a really unpleasant place when you’re sitting there terrified about what’s going on with your loved one.”
The quiet room has plum and grey walls, dimmed lighting and a kitchenette. The family is planning a tree of life on the wall with hearts, the Spurs’ cockerel insignia and Mr Hart’s loved ones featured among the illustrations.
There are also images of Mr Hart. “I want people to see his cheeky smile and there’s a little bit of a blurb about him on the plaque so people can get a sense of who he was,” his widow explained.
The family now wants to establish similar facilities at the Charing Cross and St Mary’s hospitals and hopes to expand the venture beyond London.
In total, around £43,000 from events and donations has been raised through the Malcolm Hart Foundation, set up in 2018. “I did not want his name to just fade away,” Mrs Hart said. “He was such an amazing man. I couldn’t just let him die and that would be it. His name had to live on.”