ST HELENA Hospice welcomed its first patient 36 years ago today - May 20, 1985.
The charity helps people face incurable illness and bereavement, supporting them and their families, friends and carers.
It also helps children and adults who are facing bereavement, reaching out to members of our community and bringing comfort and relief to those who need it most.
A public meeting was held in front of 140 members of the public at Colchester Town Hall in July 1979, bringing together a steering committee of health and social care people with the finance and legal expertise needed to get the project off the ground.
It took six years of fundraising, planning and construction before the hospice building opened its doors for the first time.
Dr Elizabeth Hall was the hospice’s first medical director in 1984 and had been driving the appeal committee to fund the hospice since 1979.
Dr E, as she was fondly known by patients, staff and volunteers, said: “I’d gone all over the country looking at different hospices, looking at what I thought was good practice, and wherever I went, people were telling me ‘I feel so safe here’.
Key player - first medical director Dr Elizabeth Hall in front of the hospice in May 1985
“After we opened I thought, I wonder how long it’s going to be before somebody says that of us.
“It was within 48 hours, which was wonderful.
“However, we were still fighting the concept that you go there to die.
“I always echo Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement, that you go to a hospice to live until you die.
“The whole idea of helping people live until their last breath and for the family to be involved and supported, all this time later, is still something that people don’t realise until they’ve actually experienced it.
“So there we were with the first few people being admitted and I always remember it was like living in a fog because I was learning on the hoof, as well.
Pain relief - first nursing director Jane Elliott
“I started to find people were coming in looking awful and then within 24 to 48 hours they were sitting up.
“They weren’t feeling so sick and they were feeling out of pain.
“The nurses and all the people were just amazing.
“They were just ready to learn, to try.
A view across the pond - hospice administrator Pat Gosling
“That was the thing, you could try with various things, very often non-medical things.
“The difference was looking at the patient holistically and the inclusion of the family; the needs of everybody.”
Stories of people involved with St Helena Hospice at its very beginning are being recorded and preserved, along with historic photographs and film clips, for an exhibition and an online archive project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.
To share your story and photos, email stories@sthelena.org.uk or call St Helena Hospice’s marketing team on 01206 931464.
Recipe for success - cook Doreen Hill (centre) and catering volunteers prepare home-cooked meals for patients and their visiting families
Volunteer gardeners - this hard-working bunch transformed the grounds into a peaceful haven for patients
Holistic approach - Dr Elizabeth Hall (right) and a ward sister
Learning new skills - sister Terry Magee demonstrating the new bath hoist to some of the nursing team
Nursing team - staff outside the front of the hospice, the refurbished Myland Hall in Colchester, ready to welcome the first patient in May 1985
Inside one of the bays - a view of the inpatient unit, when the hospice opened, which looked out onto the garden
Big smiles - Joy Higgins, personal assistant and secretary to administrator Pat Gosling, with Dr Elizabeth Hall
Haven of tranquility - a view from the hospice garden over High Woods, before the learning and development centre extension
Early days - the front of the hospice in 1985
READ MORE:
- 'It’s such a privilege' - teacher remembers 38 years helping pupils across north Essex
- Cyril's photo archive brings back memories of historic Colchester factory
- Nostalgia: Development and the changing face of this busy town centre road
- Corporal punishment and a case of mistaken identity for schoolboy Owen
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