Little Harbour hospice: a Special place for the whole family

SETH, the youngest of Sam and James Dickenson’s four sons, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2017 when he was just four years old. After surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he was confirmed cancer-free the following year. But in February 2020, just before the start of the Covid pandemic, doctors discovered another tumour had developed.

“We were told that was it, he was terminal and we had no idea how long he had,” said Sam. As their little boy’s health declined, the family made a list of all the things they would like to do with him before he became too unwell. One of these was to take him to see the Fisherman’s Friends perform live.

“Seth had a liking for anything to do with pirates and the Fisherman’s Friends’ song Being A Pirate really took his fancy when he heard it. We watched the first Fisherman’s Friends film with him and he loved all the sea shanties.”

Sam and James had hoped to visit

Port Isaac and see the group perform on the beach that spring but when those shows had to be called off because of Covid restrictions and tricky logistics, they thought it might never happen.

Sam said: “Then by chance, after the first lockdown, we saw they were doing a gig at the Big Sheep in North Devon in September and I managed to get tickets for the family. Seth couldn’t quite stay awake until the end, but he managed to see most of the gig. We felt it was brilliant that we had done it and that was that really.”

Then things took a sharp turn for the worse.

“Seth had been really well and we were optimistic that the treatment he was on was helping, but then the day before his seventh birthday he went for a routine scan and the day after he had a stroke. The cancer had spread everywhere. He went from running round the harbour at Mevagissey to

death’s door overnight.”

That’s when Seth’s care was transferred to Little Harbour at St Austell, a very special place where the whole family could also be supported. Opened in 2011, it’s the newest of Children’s Hospice South West’s three hospices and it’s dedicated to making the most of short and precious lives, providing the best possible hospice care for children and young people living with lifelimiting conditions and their families, free of charge, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Sam said: “Our lovely friends rallied together to do everything they possibly could and without us knowing they emailed the Fisherman’s Friends to ask them to come and sing for Seth at the hospice. So, along the guys came one evening in December. The weather was awful but they couldn’t come inside because of Covid regulations.

“They sang some of Seth’s favourite songs... at that time he couldn’t move and had a feeding tube in but he was still trying to sing along. It was one of those amazing moments we will always remember. Before that it was almost like his spirit had been broken and he’d had enough, but then he came back to us... he spoke, he got his swallow back and he came home.”

Seth lived until May 2021 and died at home, where he wanted to be. “We had always anticipated that Seth would die at the hospice, but they actually did a brilliant job of helping us at home. They were on the end of the phone all the time.

“They were our security blanket. We could just concentrate on Seth and we didn’t have to worry about all the other stuff – they even did things like bring us food parcels,” said Sam.

“We wouldn’t have felt so confident about everything if they hadn’t been around.

“There is nothing good about what happened but we always hope it might impact on what happens to other people. Seth was a fighter and his reach seems to impact a long way!”

To find out more about the work of Little Harbour and Children’s Hospice South West, visit www. chsw.org.uk

‘The hospice did a brilliant job of helping us... they were our security blanket’ SAM DICKENSON