Dianne Clark shares her special memories of her mum Rose Brand, and the support she received from our specialist Motor Neurone Disease team and inpatient team before she died at Saint Michael’s in 2017.
Dianne and mum, Rose
Mum was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in December 2016 and we were referred to Saint Michael’s Specialist MND service. I cannot put into words how helpful the support we received was.
Before then, I didn’t know that the hospice catered for MND. The team were so understanding and supported Mum very quickly in the short few months she had following her diagnosis. They helped get her equipment and a suitable chair as well as talked us through what was happening.
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In the April following her MND diagnosis, Saint Michael’s helped mum with managing her pain while she stayed on the inpatient unit for six weeks. Though she sadly never made it home despite our plans for her to, we were pleased that the care she received in her last six weeks was absolutely tremendous.
Mum was amazing- the glue that stuck our whole family- including great grandkids- together. It was really great that lots of our family visited her and were able to stay through the night in her room at the hospice.
All of the nurses, doctors and everyone were unbelievable in looking after us and Mum. They would come and talk to us and comfort us. It really helped that they never kept anything from us in discussing her care. Letting us know we had two weeks left to spend with her made a big difference.
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They gave her dignity in everything they did, and nothing was ever a problem for them.
Mum loved flowers and plants having worked at Bachelors in Knaresborough and kept a beautiful garden outside her flat. I remember one day when she was staying at Saint Michael’s, we were able to take her outside on the veranda in her wheelchair. She loved that she could see everything in the hospice gardens from there.
Saint Michael’s gave us so much- we would really like to share our thanks for everything they did. They gave us room to grieve and helped us along the way.
We still come to Light up a Life each year. It’s amazing that the nurses who looked after mum including Jemma still remember us.
