This year, Max, Amy and Sophie are fundraising for The Butterfly Appeal, with Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity by taking part in the Santa Fun Run!

The Butterfly Appeal is supporting care at the end of life at East Suffolk & North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT). Our Butterfly Service provide non-clinical support in various ways in both our acute and our community hospitals. Our Butterfly Service is run by three amazing coordinators: Pam, Debbie and Amy and Max has the absolute pleasure of being their line manager. Between the three coordinators, they run Butterfly Information Centres at both acute hospital sites and recruit, train and support our Butterfly Volunteer Sitting Service.

This non-clinical service supports patients who are end of life (in hospital, this means those last short weeks, days and hours of life), those identified as important to the dying person (including family and friends), carers, community partners and ESNEFT colleagues. The Butterfly Service continues to grow and develop from its official set-up back in 2019, and the team have many plans to increase the support the Butterfly Service are able to provide. This can only be possible with continued funding of the service, and is reliant on fundraising and donations to be able to run long into the future.

Primarily, the service is to minimise the number of people dying alone in our hospitals (whether this is due to no living relatives, family living too far away, or at that time a loved one needs to nip home for a shower and grab some bits). Our Butterfly Volunteer Sitting Service are there to provide companionship and a listening ear. The Service could not be possible with out our wonderful volunteers, and we have around 20 at both Ipswich Hospital (also supporting Aldeburgh, Bluebird and Felixstowe community hospitals) and Colchester Hospital (also supporting Harwich and Clacton community hospitals). Our volunteers give so much at the end of life: dedication, compassion, care, advocacy, support and most of all - they give their time, life's most precious of resources. And the non-clinical support our Butterfly Volunteer Sitting Service provides is even more essential when time is much shorter. Every single day, minute and hour truly matters.

In 2023, both acute hospital sites were able to open Butterfly Centres. The Butterfly Centres provide resources (such as advance care planning advice), can refer to in-house ESNEFT services (such as our complimentary therapy or pets as therapy teams) and external services (such as Suffolk Family Carers and Community 360) whilst also sign-posting to additional ‘treasures’ in our communities locally – by doing so, this meets the first ESNEFT strategic objective ‘Keep people in control of their health’ by supporting patients, their families and our community to care for themselves. By investing in the Butterfly Service, the coordinators and the centres will be able to continue expanding and strengthening relationships with our community partners for cohesive working across Suffolk and North Essex – bridging end of life non-clinical support in our hospitals with end of life non-clinical care in our community.