A TREE of Life, which has inspired thousands of people to write a message of remembrance to their loved ones, has come to Okehampton.
The tree, sculpted from willow, was created to celebrate 21 years of Hospiscare and will be on display at the Ockment Centre in Okehampton until the end of June.
The tree was inaugurated in a special service at Exeter Cathedral in January this year and has since been on a tour of Exeter and mid and east Devon.
People have been invited to write a message or thought on a leaf and add it to the tree, which was sculpted by Dulford artist Barbara Clift.
Rob Yeomans, Hospiscare?s chaplain, said allowing people to put up messages made the tree special.
?This makes the tree a living, changing monument, not only to the work of Hospiscare, but also to those people we have chosen to mention in our thoughts,? he said.
The leaves were made by a prisoner at Dartmoor Prison and by patients at Hospiscare?s day-care unit and are available in the basket next to the tree or from the Hospiscare shop in Okehampton.
Gay Hill, the Hospiscare nurse for the Okehampton area, said: ?The tree of life is for everyone and not just for people who have lost someone. People can tie on as many leaves as they want to.?
Hospiscare supports people with life threatening illnesses and their relatives and carers.
Hospiscare has been providing support in Okehampton for the last eleven years.