On Sunday, 21st March 2010, I shall be walking the 7.5 miles from East Finchley tube station to Storey's Gate, Westminster in order to raise as much money as possible for the North London Hospice, who did such a wonderful job of looking after my Dad this time last year.  Somehow, I will drag myself out of bed early on Sunday morning so I can register at the starting line by 10:15am!!!!  Surely, that in itself, must be worth a few bob???  In the UK, one in three people are touched by hospice care* & hospices need to raise over £1m per day to keep going*.  Please read my story below & help me in any way you can to raise some much-needed funds for this very worthy cause.  Thank you!

Sadly, my Dad passed away in June 2009 from an inoperable and very aggressive, malignant brain tumour (GBM grade 4).  He first became ill in Dec 2006 but wasn't diagnosed with terminal brain cancer until July 2007.  We were all shocked by the news and by the pessimistic prognosis of 2-18 months, but he bravely fought on for almost another 2 years, during which time my brother & I did our very best to care for him at home.  Unfortunately, the radiotherapy & chemotherapy benefited him little and he became progressively more ill.  He suffered from unpredictable & sometimes frequent seizures and his strength, speech, memory & emotions were all severely affected.  As time went on, his heart & lungs began to fail and he was unable to swallow, eventually falling into a coma.  To his credit though, Dad always retained his sense of humour & his charming smile and twinkle in his bright blue eyes! :)  It was extremely painful to watch our father - who had always been a very strong, intelligent & independent man - deteriorate in front of us and know that we were powerless to prevent the course of the disease.  Fortunately, we were blessed with brilliant GPs and sympathetic, flexible and supportive bosses and work colleagues, who enabled us to look after Dad at home for as long as possible.  We also had the practical & emotional support of several wonderful friends who helped us out in many different ways - sometimes at a moment's notice.  However, we faced many obstacles & challenges along the way and the mental, physical & emotional toll on all of us was immense and exhausting.

Luckily, with the support of the Macmillan nurses, who were faultless throughout, we were offered a place for Dad at the North London Hospice to allow us some much-needed respite from our caring role.  It also gave Dad the opportunity of a change of scenery and he quickly became friends with the doctors & nurses there.  Their experience and character gave them the unique ability to relate to Dad's and to our situation.  They quickly put him at his ease and he felt able to trust them.  The respite was only supposed to last for 2 weeks but, as is common with carers, the break meant that I became ill myself.  And after seeing the deterioration in Dad's condition, we made the incredibly difficult and heart-wrenching decision to admit that we were unable to continue caring for him at home.  By then, Dad needed 24-hour nursing care and he required specialist equipment that was unavailable to us & medication that we were unable to administer to him ourselves.  After a long & fruitless search for a suitable nursing home, Dad's condition became more unstable & his prognosis looked increasingly bleak so, to our relief, the doctors and nurses at the hospice advised us to call off the search for a nursing home.  The staff at the hospice did a fantastic job of looking after my Dad and in the end, they cared for him during the whole of his final 5.5 months.  They also supported my brother and me throughout and allowed me to stay at the hospice overnight with Dad during his very last days.  I am so grateful to them for allowing me to be there with Dad when he died and for their support when that dreaded day finally arrived.

The hospice serves the boroughs of Enfield, Barnet and Haringey, which have a population of 1 million.  Its team of specialist doctors and nurses supports the palliative care given to patients and relatives in their own homes.  They do this by providing advice on pain relief and managing other symptoms in order to improve patients' quality of life.  The hospice continues to provide bereavement support to relatives for 14 months following the death of someone in their care, whether they were an in-patient, attended the day centre or were cared for in the community.  It runs bereavement counselling groups and one-to-ones, and arranges moving memorial ceremonies to commemorate and celebrate the lives of those who have passed on.  They also run a day centre during the week to bring together patients to offer them mutual support and life-enhancing activities, like art.  Unfortunately, due to Dad's particular symptoms, he was unable to partake of this aspect of the hospice's work.

It is impossible to do justice to the incredible work that the hospice does and to describe fully its impact on our lives and the lives of many other patients and relatives.  The hospice is as far removed from a hospital as one can get; the staff and volunteers have the time & resources to care for the patients, and each patient and relative is treated sensitively, as an individual human being, not just a statistic.  The focus is always on making the patient feel as comfortable as possible.  Every member of staff and volunteer at the hospice truly is an angel who brightened Dad's final days.  We shall be eternally grateful to them for all that they did for our Dad & for us, and for the very special work that they do in valuing the lives and preserving the dignity of all those facing incurable, terminal illnesses.

Thank you for reading my (rather long!) story.

The hospice is a charity and receives only 20% of its funding from the NHS so it has to raise the remaining 80% through its shops, voluntary donations, legacies and fund-raising events such as this 'Big Fun Walk'.  Please give as much as you can to enable the North London Hospice to continue its very valuable work.  Even a small donation will help!  As examples of how much good your donations can do:

£10 would buy gardening tools for the upkeep of the garden which is used by patients as a place of tranquility;

£12 would buy an art kit, allowing patients to express and enjoy themselves at the day centre;

£15 would buy a bouquet of flowers to brighten up a patient's room or the hospice's communal areas;

£20 would provide a pampering day for one of the hospice's patients, who would be able to choose from a selection of treatments including aromatherapy, reflexology, Indian Head Massage, hairdressing, manicure, etc;

£50 would pay for a relative's bereavement session with a trained counsellor;

£200 would allow a specialist trained nurse to care for a patient overnight in their own home.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

If you would like any further information about the hospice & its work, please visit their website at: www.northlondonhospice.org.uk

More info on the event itself may be found at www.bigfunwalk.co.uk

I've written this message in green in honour of my amazing Dad, as that was his favourite colour.  To complement the green, the background is in gold to acknowledge and celebrate our Irish nationality, of which he was extremely proud!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

*statistics taken from Help the Hospices: www.helpthehospices.org.uk/