HOSPISCARE is inviting the people of Okehampton to help them to continue providing care and support to people with live threatening illness by getting involved in the charity?s biggest fundraising drive of the year.
Hospiscare Week runs from May 15 - 22 and the charity is asking people to ?go orange? to raise much needed funds during this week.
The Hospiscare shop in Okehampton will be sporting an orange window display during the week and specially commissioned pin badges and teddy bears will also be on sale in the charity?s shops.
Hospiscare provides high quality care and support to people with life-threatening illness and those close to them through Exeter, mid and east Devon.
Hospiscare has two community nurses based in Okehampton ? Gay Hill and Hilary Squire ? who visit patients in their own homes in the Okehampton and north Dartmoor area.
Gay has been working in the community since Hospiscare started working in the area twelve years ago, and covers a large geographical area, including Okehampton, Hatherleigh, North Tawton, Bow, Cheriton Bishop and Moretonhampstead.
Gay?s background was as a district nurse, and these skills help her to offer support to people with cancer and other serious illnesses.
Gay said her job involved providing psychological support and giving information to the patient, as well as acting very much as the patient?s advocate.
Gay said the community nurse also offers support for the patient?s family as well.
?It is important to offer support for the relatives because life can be quite hard for them as well,? she said.
Gay said it was very important for people to be able to stay in their own homes.
Gay?s husband Cllr Peter Hill has been Mayor of West Devon this year and his chosen charity for the past 12 months has been Hospiscare, which has provided a great boost to the charity.
Gay added: ?The majority of our referrals come from GPs and if we meet patients early in their illness we can build up a friendship or rapport. Whereas if we come in at a later stage sometimes it is more difficult.?
Norah Stocks from Chagford has benefitted from the service, having receiving visits from the Hospiscare nurses since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 18 months ago.
She said: ?They are angels. They have all been the same ? absolutely wonderful. They have got time for you and help put your mind at rest.?
Mrs Stocks said it was a comfort to be able to stay at home. ?When you are in your own home, you can relax. When you are at the doctors, while you are waiting you are thinking of all the things you have to tell them and when you get in there, sometimes you forget them all.?
Hospiscare also has a team of volunteers in the Okehampton area who support the nurses.
Volunteers are called upon to do things such as drive patients to appointments, shop for them, walk their dog or sit with them to give their carers a little time to themselves.
Hospiscare currently has around ten volunteers, but would always welcome more.
If they cannot manage someone?s symptoms at home, nurses can refer patients to Hospiscare?s hospice in Exeter. Patients also attend the hospice?s daycare centre.
Hospiscare Week runs from May 15-22 and further events will be taking place in the Okehampton area to mark the week.