I am taking on the challenge to join the BELT 100 CLUB and raising £100 by a variety of ways.  I started by  digging around my house for loose change! This resulted in £29 (I had a jar of change that has just sat on the side for a long time!).  What next?  Perhaps a cake sale at work? 

I'm getting involved in this challenge as in the last 4 and a bit years I lost both my parents.  My Dad died from Sepsis on the  ITU at Good Hope Hospital on Christmas Day 2017.  My mom died in April 2020 after living with vascular dementia for just over 3 years.  She had a lockdown funeral - just 6 of us attending - not going to lie, it was awful and not what she deserved.

The last few years have shown me how important end of life care is - it can make a huge difference to the grieving process.

I cannot fault the ITU team at Good Hope , they were amazing.  The doctor said to me that there was nothing more that they could do and that they needed to stop treatment.  He added how he wished he could have kept him going until the next day (given today was Christmas) but it would have been unfair on my dad.  He said that he was so sorry as Christmas Day  wasn't the best day to die.  My response - is any day a good day to die?  It isn't,  which is why it is so incredibly important to look at making end of life care the best it can possibly be both for the patient and the family.  

Grief is hard - if we can make the experience of losing someone in hospital just that little bit easier then I'm up for that!  

Please feel free to make a donation or indeed join the challenge.