Marie Curie Cancer Care Christmas SING OUT
We are delighted to support the Marie Curie Christmas Sing Out Campaign.
We have set up a special 15% discount (please enter SINGOUT in the discount code box on the shopping basket page) for singers and choirs who wish to buy music and take part.
For more information please click on the link below and do read the message from Ann Akrill, one of 2,000 Marie Curie Nurses
Please feel free to read this piece out before, during or after your Sing Out event.
Thank you so much for being here to support Sing Out. We hope you’ll enjoy every song, knowing that you’re supporting the work of your local Marie Curie Nursing Service.
All year round, Marie Curie Nurses provide high quality home nursing care, totally free of charge, for people who are terminally ill. Patients and families tell us that our practical help and emotional support makes a tremendous difference - so it’s always an extremely rewarding job.
During the Christmas season we work to ensure that patients are able to spend this precious time with their families.
Every family is different, and we look for ways to help them celebrate however is best for them. Mostly we find they just want to do things as they’ve always done, and I love having time to sit down over a cup of tea and a mince pie with them while they tell me about their own special family traditions and familiar rituals.
One lady I looked after had been in hospital for around six months. She really wanted to spend Christmas and at home with her husband and children aged 10 and 13. She needed a lot of care and I spent several nights in the two weeks before Christmas providing this so that her husband could get some rest and prepare for a family Christmas. The decorations were put up in her room, the tree decorated and presents wrapped and hidden away. I spent the night of Christmas Eve with the family, and the patient, although very weak, was so happy to be at home with her family. Before I left on Christmas morning the family all came to her room and there was great excitement as presents were opened and festivities began. Sadly, I didn’t see her again as she died the next day, but it was such a privilege to be able to have been able to help make it possible for this family to spend one last Christmas together.
Most dying people don’t want to spend their last days in hospital, they want to stay in their own familiar surroundings. But some of them just couldn’t be at home if it wasn’t for the help of Marie Curie Cancer Care. They depend on us being here to help them in the lead up to Christmas and beyond. And of course, that is only made possible through the generous support of people like you.
We thank you very much for your support and wish you all peace, joy, health and happiness for your own Christmas. Thank you.
Ann Akrill, Marie Curie Nurse