<p>Oh, hi there, I'm so pleased that you have got to&nbsp;my page.&nbsp; I&nbsp;do hope that when you read what I have to say&nbsp;you may feel that you can sponsor me.</p> <p>Look, let's get this straight, this isn't about me and my bloody stupid challenge (do check out the video clip opposite,&nbsp;a good insight into people like me.&nbsp; I really don't see why people find it funny....neither does my wife).&nbsp; This is about Grove House, a place I love and the work it does, and actually when I tell my story,&nbsp;I suppose&nbsp;it is a bit about me.&nbsp; You see, we have just merged with Iain Rennie Hospice at Home so that we can bring hospice at home services to more people in Herts and Bucks.&nbsp; What does that mean?&nbsp; We allow more people to spend their final days in the place that they would most want to be, which is at home surrounded by the people they love.</p> <p>I'm sorry to tug at your heart strings but let me illustrate from my own experience why I believe&nbsp;our work&nbsp;is so vitally important:</p> <p>My Dad died last year.&nbsp; His final illness saw him admitted to hospital in Lincoln.&nbsp;He was&nbsp;only expected to live a few hours, a&nbsp; couple of days at most. We and the doctors agreed that their was to be no medical intervention,so that we didn't prolong dad's&nbsp;suffering any more than was necessary.&nbsp; The hospital kindly put Dad in his own room and said we were able to visit at any time of the day or night so we could make our farewells.&nbsp; But Dad was Triple Ironman material.&nbsp; He was a fighter - all his life had been a battle with his disability, and he wasn't going to go easy, and refused to die to any pre-prescribed&nbsp;hospital timetable. So much so that out of the blue I received a phonecall from&nbsp;his ward:&nbsp; "Mr Parrish, you need to find alternative accommodation for your father.&nbsp; As we have agreed there is to be no on-going treatment, he is no longer a medical case and needs to be removed".&nbsp; Want to know how that makes you feel?&nbsp; Bloody frightening, too much responsibility and&nbsp;very lonely.&nbsp; I lived 120 miles away and I had&nbsp;one day to find a care home that would&nbsp;could care for&nbsp;someone who had a few days of their life left.&nbsp; I asked the hospital if a social worker could be assigned to help me find a care home, but they pointed out that&nbsp;I needed to see&nbsp;the homes personally because&nbsp;"you wouldn't want to put a dog in some of these places".&nbsp; Oh, how right they were.The&nbsp;depressing&nbsp;institutions that may await some of us at&nbsp;our end defy description.&nbsp;Surely we deserve something&nbsp;just a little special at the end of our journey?&nbsp;Never have&nbsp;I felt so low as the day I did the rounds of care homes that&nbsp;took end-of-life cases.</p> <p>I did find a good care home eventually, got Dad admitted, and he died peacefully. I was there to wish him all the best for the journey ahead.&nbsp; But it still upsets me that after all that stress of finding somewhere, all he really wanted was to be at home; to be surrounded by his books, his sounds, his smells (think of the comfortable smell of your home compared to that of a medical institution) - to be surrounded by the people he loved.&nbsp; He didn't have access to what Iain Rennie Grove House can offer - the chance, the right in fact, to be able to die in your own home.</p> <p>So please sponsor me.&nbsp; Your contribution will make a much more permanent contribution to the well being of our patients than the fleeting pain I will feel in June (but I will point out that my pain will be a real sod, so a bit of compassion would be appreciated...)</p> <p>Thank you</p> <p>Love <br /><br />Paul</p> <p>xx</p> <p>PS&nbsp;Don't forget the video&nbsp;</p>