I'm trekking to the amazing Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the World, something I have wanted to do forever. It'll be a tough challenge and I will see if at 56 I still have the strength and stamina to deal with altitude, long days of trekking over mountains and sharing a tent with Kirsty 😂 but It'll all be worth it if I can raise some much needed money for LOROS.

It's hard to describe Hospice care to someone who's never had to experience it. LOROS is the 3rd Hospice I've worked in, and they've all been amazing, but Loros....how to put into words what it means to me and the people that need it???

The patient who saw her unborn grandchild before she died because staff arranged for a portable ultrasound to be brought in.

The young daughter struggling to ease her Mums pain at home and support her siblings while also working and studying until the Clinical Nurse Specialist steps in and finds the right medication to ease Mums pain and finds people to ease the pressure on her daughter.

The families who you ask 'how are you doing? ' to be told 'we're ok now we're here'

The people that come in to offer something to patients, be it food or entertainment or something else they think will be useful, just because their daughter, husband, mother, friend was cared for by LOROS and just wants to give a little something back.

The people attending Day Hospice who laugh and don't feel like a patient for a day. Who say 'I feel listened to for the first time in years'

The nursing staff who hold the hand of a family member while their loved one peacefully slips away.

The young adults who spend an afternoon together laughing, having fun and knowing they don't need to talk about their illness or condition because everyone there gets it.

Loros is all this and so very much more. It is a place of true, unwavering care and utter devotion to patients and their loved ones. Even through redundancies and really hard times feedback didn’t change because staff always put patients first.

If I ever get a terminal diagnosis or a life limiting condition these are the people I want caring for me. That's only possible with donations as the Government pay so very little to help.