Thank you for taking the time to visit ourJustGiving page. A group of us are completing a 14K walk going north then south over the bridges of London from Tower Bridge to Battersea Bridge covering around 14K in memory of our colleague Rachel who lost her brave battle with cancer. In her final weeks she was cared for at St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley.

OVERVIEW of St Catherine's

For 40 years St Catherine’s Hospice has provided expert end of life care and support to terminally ill people and their families across West Sussex and East Surrey. Our vision is a world where every faces death informed, supported, and pain free. As well as expert medical care, St Catherine’s also provides emotional and practical support through its dedicated Wellbeing Team, which provides a range of services including counselling, welfare advice, bereavement support and spiritual care.   It could be a bath, a favourite meal, or helping someone manage their pain. For us, hospice care is whatever our patients and those closest to them need it to be. It’s different for everyone, and we empower our patients to make their own decisions whenever they can.

WHO DO THEY SUPPORT

Every year, we care for around 2,000 people living with a terminal illness, this could be cancer, neurological diseases, and end-stage heart, kidney and lung diseases. We also support their families and friends to navigate the difficult period before and after death. We are aware that we currently only reach 1/3 of the people who need our help, and we also know that 19% of people we care for are under the age of 55, so working age people and this is double what it was the previous year.

We have a state of the art, purpose-built hospice in Pease Pottage which we moved into late last year. It has 24 individual rooms, as well as additional space so we can offer more wellbeing classes and outpatient appointments and every patient will have their own secluded outside space. We also care for people in their own homes and in care homes across West Sussex and East Surrey, in fact 80% of the people we care for we do so in their own homes. Helping someone to die well at home, if they wish, is important and our dedicated team provides everything from medical advice to practical support around the house.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

The services we offer are completely free. It costs around £11 million to run the hospice each year, but less than a third of this comes from the NHS. The rest is raised through the support and generosity of the wider community.