Supporting St Wilfrid's Hospice my privileged role as a funeral celebrant

Why, as a funeral celebrant, I have the privilege of supporting St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

Should we support our local hospices? You bet! In this article, I explain why I am supporting St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Bosham, West Sussex.

Since I began my career as a funeral celebrant I have conducted well over 250 cremation and burial services, celebrations of life and memorials in the South of England. In my work, I have inevitably come across a variety of causes of death, including many syndromes and conditions of which I had never previously heard. But cancer is the cause of just over a quarter of all deaths in England in a typical year; in fact in 2021 in England, 134,802 people died from cancer.

When I am planning a funeral or celebration of life, I meet with the family or friends to discuss what kind of funeral service they want and by the end of the process, I have got to know the family and of course, how the loved one has died. Through this process, I have come to understand and admire those institutions known as hospices. Hospice care began in France in the mid 1800s with the modern hospice movement in the UK becoming a regular feature a century later.

OUR LOCAL HOSPICE IN BOSHAM, WEST SUSSEX

Close to Chichester, West Sussex where I live, we are so fortunate to have in our midst, St Wilfrid’s Hospice, the most incredible independent local charity which has been supporting people in our community living with a terminal or life limiting illness, for over 35 years. In 2019 with the help of generous donations and fundraising, St Wilfrid’s built their ‘Dreambuilding’, a state-of-the-art 14 bed hospice in Bosham, West Sussex.

ST WILFRID’S HOSPICE, WEST SUSSEX

The hospice believes that the well-being of the whole person (mind, body and soul) is important when trying to cope with a long-term condition, subsequent treatments and the progression of a disease. Caring for or losing a loved one in this situation can also be overwhelming on every level. As a result they have incorporates an incredible complementary therapy service which has an holistic and supportive role in looking after the individual, helping to ease the symptoms of stress and anxiety, improving your sleep and general comfort.

Have you ever wondered how a hospice operates, how it is funded? You see, I didn’t know that it costs a whopping £26,000 per day for St Wilfrid’s Hospice to provide the care people need; top notch specialist end-of-life care and support for both the individual and their families. As such, St Wilfrid’s Hospice is almost entirely reliant upon fundraising activities and donations in Wills and NHS funding is pretty minimal. So when we are making our Wills, let’s remember St Wilfrid’s Hospice or whichever is your local hospice, even if it is only a small gift. It really is vital that we support them.

I can say with complete conviction that in my four years as a funeral celebrant, creating and conducting funeral services in Chichester and other parts of West Sussex, in Hampshire, in Surrey and in East Sussex, I have absolute confidence in the incredible service offered by our hospices and it is vital that we continue to support them whenever we can, be it through their shops, fundraising activities or by gifts in our Wills.