At this year’s Moonlight and Memories Walk, we met Denise, who shared her
amazing fundraising story and her connection to the Hospice with us.

Denise‘s first connection to the Hospice started back in the late 1990s, when
she’d read the obituaries in her local paper. “I’d read the obituaries section and
see the mums and dads of people I knew, who had died at the Hospice. This was
how I was initially aware that there was a hospice. I remember seeing it spelled
out in the papers one day – that the Hospice needed more donations to cover
their costs. I then said to my husband, wouldn’t it be great if we could help?”

And help they did. In 1997, her husband took part in a parachute jump organised
by the Hospice. “We all stayed the weekend in an army tent and those doing the
jump had a whole weekend of training. In those days, they were taught how to
jump on their own, without being strapped to an instructor. I wasn’t jumping
myself, but my husband was. I remember being absolutely terrified for him!”
They enjoyed it so much they went back the next year with friends to do it
again.

In 2004, Denise’s connection to the Hospice deepened, when her mum was diagnosed with cancer and died just four weeks later. “I can’t tell you how much it opened my eyes to what the hospice is really about. Even though we had been doing things in aid of the Hospice to support the Nurses and patients, we hadn’t realised the extent to which the Hospice support is provided to the family and friends too.”

Denise shared her memories of the care her family received: “After mum died,
we were taken into a separate room, we had the support of lovely nurses who
were kind, caring, ready to listen and comforting. It was okay to sit and have a
proper cry, they got us cups of tea and gave us cake, not that we ate it but, they
were listening to us – it was just really lovely.”

A few years later, Denise and her husband, Jez, organised a fancy dress Charity Ball to raise money for the Hospice. Using their connections through work, friends and family, they were able to host an amazing event which was fully catered, had an amazing raffle of prizes including F1 tickets and massive TVs, and even had the Mayor pop along to hand out the fancy dress prize. “It was amazing. It was such a good night,” Denise shared.

Denise didn’t stop there, she decided to run a marathon, raising more funds for the Hospice. “I didn’t give myself much time to train, but I raised money for the Hospice, which was my aim.” She caught the marathon bug and ran another one, this time getting her cousin Shirley to run with her.

A few years later, Denise’s dad was cared for at the Hospice too. Both her parents died in the same room, four years apart. “Both my parents died around Christmas time, my mum died just before Christmas, dad died just after Christmas. So, Christmas, for me, at the Hospice is special. I just come here and sit quietly, they both passed away in the same room, so I used to come up andsit just outside.”