At Willow Burn our mission is to treasure lives through the provision of seamless personalised high quality care and we have a wonderful team of nurses and healthcare professionals working round-the-clock, 24 hours a day, providing free Hospice care for the Derwentside community. They are the heart and soul of Willow Burn and we are sure you will agree they do an amazing job, even when they are challenged with a pandemic. But the team needs your help.
From the very first step into the hospice I felt really calm and welcome. Its quite a special place because you just feel care rushing towards you.
Willow Burn only receives 40% of our income from the local government, so our other income streams are vitally important to the Hospice. We need to raised a further £800,000 every year to run our services but due to the restrictions in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, our shops have been closed for at least six months throughout the year and our cafe has only been allowed to open for three. Fundraising and donations have also understandably reduced. What's more, it is also hard to plan for the future with the regular changes in restrictions. The impact of COVID-19 effects 60% of our income.
Only a poet could write the words to properly describe how utterly grateful myself and my family are for the help, care, respect and love you showed my mum. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.
2020 has been a very challenging year at Willow Burn but because of you and your support so far, we have still been able to provide care to the people who need it the most. Our service has been a comfort and relief to families, friends and carers who really didnt know where to turn in these uncertain time. We were in the fortunate position that we didnt have to stop visits to patients, because we have individual outside access to all of the bedrooms, allowing families to visit without entering the main hospice building. Although there were some restrictions in place, we were generally able to facilitate family visits, at a time when our patients needed their loved ones the most.
We are enormously proud of our role in the community and our dedication to providing a vital service for people living with a terminal illness and their families in Derwentside but we need your help to continue. If you are in a position to do so, please support your Local Hospice by giving a donation today, it will truly make a difference to patients and their families when they need it the most.
We will leave you with the words of the late Jim Alderson, a volunteer at Willow Burn for over 20 years, his poem says it all...
When you go to Willow Burn cast your eyes around, see the angels scuttling by, so all are safe and sound! All the hustle and each tread, the smiles upon their faces. Willing hands and willing hearts, sometimes missed in other places. Concern, the order of the day is burned into their being doesn't need encouragement or any overseeing. Care, compassion, in the eyes, concern with every touch, all is freely given and they never ask for much. So turn your thoughts to Willow Burn where caring takes its course! Ladies, I salute you, the Angels of the North.
* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.
