Nightingale House Hospice go digital for Light Up A Life event

Each year hundreds of people dedicate a light to loved ones on Nightingale House’s Christmas tree to help raise funds towards providing expert care and support to local people in our community.

This is a special event when the hospice tree is lit for the first time during the Advent Season and those glimmers of light offer remembrance and tribute to those who have played such a special part in our lives. Light Up A Life gives us an opportunity to remember and celebrate the lives of loved ones in a positive way.

Nightingale House Hospice’s Annual Light Up A Life Service will take on a new look this year, when it goes digital on Sunday, December 6, at 4pm, enabling people to join together virtually to celebrate the lives of loved ones. If you would like to be part of this special Service and remember a loved one, the service will be broadcast live on the hospice website.

There is still time if you would like to be part of this special event. Dedications can be made online by visiting www.nightingalehouse.co.uk/in-memory/light-up-life or by telephoning 01978 314292. There is no minimum donation, all we ask is that you are as generous as possible, so you can keep helping “make every moment count” for patients and families.

Nightingale House would like to thank Williams Financial Planning Ltd for their generous support and sponsorship of this event.

We would like to share more stories of why families take part in our Light Up A Life event each year, and pay tribute to the some of those remembered on our Hospice Christmas tree...

• My lovely wife Norma (pictured above) passed away at Nightingale House Hospice on Monday, July 7, 2008, aged 67, with me holding her hand by her side.

I have supported the hospice’s Light Up A Life campaign since that time, as it’s a way of giving back and thanking them for looking after her in her final days. After she died I used to have a vegetable plot and orchard where I grew different fruit and vegetables - I used to take them to the hospice for the kitchen to help feed the patients - they used to call me the vegetable man!

I wanted to do anything I could to help them. I used to be able to visit regularly and have always attended the Light Up A Life service every year - it was always held in the grounds of the hospice. It was a lovely service and I used to think about Norma when I was there and give thanks for the care she received. By Rosario Aguanno

Above: Maisie is pictured with mum Chrissie, dad Bryan and sister Niamh.

• My mum passed away in August this year and was extremely poorly throughout lockdown. The pandemic meant my sister had to leave her job dancing on cruise ships and I came home from university to support mum throughout this time - a lot of good came out of lockdown for us.

We miss her terribly but would like to share our story. We will be reading our Testimony at the Light Up A Life Service to be shown remotely on December 6.

Nightingale House means the world to my family and we have been focussing our energy on raising as much funds as possible for the hospice so that other families can benefit as we did from the wonderful work that they do. I hope you will join us at Light Up A Life to hear what Nightingale House means to us and how we dealt with the restrictions brought about by Covid-19. By Maisie

Above: Ed and Angela Topliss.

• The Light Up A life campaign offers a poignant way to remember loved ones at Christmas. It brings us together as a family to reflect and reminisce.

My husband Ed, loved Christmas, the perfect time to do what he loved the most - spending time with his family.

By donating to this campaign and through other fundraising opportunities we like to think that we are helping other families to receive the care and outstanding support that we received.

The hospice didn’t just care for my husband, they supported myself and my family through an extremely difficult time, and we will be forever grateful for everything they did.

Although it was very daunting going to the hospice for the first time, the warmth and friendliness of the staff immediately shone through, from discussing the meals with the chef to having a friendly chat and a joke with the cleaners.

Nothing was ever too much for the ward staff, who were always smiling, willing to listen and explain in simple terms the situation we were facing.

Even though Ed was an inpatient, we were still able to do things as a family while he was there; eat meals round a table together, sit in the conservatory/garden areas when other relatives visited and even bring Woody, our dog in to see him.

The support still continued after Ed’s passing; I was offered counselling sessions and access to support groups where I got talking to people who had been through similar situations.

By sharing our experience we hope people will see just what a difference donating to the hospice can make to local families like ourselves who were able to benefit from the valuable service that Nightingale House provides in our area. By Angela Topliss