I want to tell you about my sister, Sammie. She’s seven years younger than me. When she was born, I absolutely adored her. She was like my little dolly.

In 2016, when Sammie was 27, she was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma cervical cancer.

It’s one of those things that you read in the news and it never affects you. It’s always somebody else. But it was really happening.

Sammie had chemoradiotherapy and brachytherapy at the hospital in Brighton. Then she was moved to St Barnabas. She was supposed to go there for pain relief and then go home. That was the plan. But, within half an hour of being there the nurses said she wouldn’t be with us for more than a week.

In the end, Sammie was in St Barnabas for just two and half days. Me, my mum, Mandy and my sister in law, Sam stayed at St Barnabas every night with her and on the Sunday our brother, Shaun, joined us as we knew she didn't have long left. She had loads of visitors and the staff at St Barnabas let everyone come in and let us use the day room.

By Sunday night, Sammie was in and out of sleep, and not really coherent when she was awake. She passed away in the early hours of Monday morning.

The care at St Barnabas is all you could ever want for somebody that you love who is in that situation. If I were seriously ill, I would make it clear that St Barnabas is where I would want to be. There is no doubt about that.

And what’s really incredible is that all of that wonderful care is provided absolutely free of charge. Which means it relies on funding from local people like me and you.

So, please, if you can, make a donation to help St Barnabas care for even more people in our local community.

Thank you so much,

Tanya