Winter 04 Newsletter QX6 16/11/04 10:44 Page 3 Light up a Life 2004 Christmas St. Gemma’s Hospice invites you to celebrate the memory of your loved ones, or honour someone special in your life, by support- ing this year’s Light up a Life Appeal. You can dedicate a light on our Christmas trees by using the form below or telephoning in the Day Hospice 0113 218 5555. For each donation we will send you a person- alised dedication certificate for you to keep or to pass on to the person you have honoured. You will be invited to join us for the candlelit carol service which takes place at the Hospice on Sunday, 5 December at 4 p.m. Your kind donation will allow us to continue caring for hundreds of local people in need of our special care each year. Your Name . Address . Postcode . Telephone . Number of lights you wish to sponsor ……… My Light is in memory of (please print clearly) Mavis Wood helps decorate the Day Hospice . photo courtesy ofYorkshire Post Newspapers . ith over two thousand five hundred attendances each year, St. Gemma’s Day Hospice is a hive of activity. Throughout the year, the Day Hospice team or My Light is a greeting to W of staff and volunteers provides a therapeutic and creative atmosphere for our patients to visit. Christmas time is particularly special for everyone at the Day . Hospice and plans for the festive period begin in earnest early in the season. Key to the yuletide atmosphere are the Christmas decorations, which are made by a . team of patients and volunteers, led by the creative arts workers, Clair and Susan.They welcome all patients to the Day Hospice and help them express their emotions Number attending the ceremony ……… through various artistic media.Watercolours, mosaics, patchworks, murals and char- coal masterpieces are created year round in the purpose-built Art Room on the I enclose £……… cheques payable to St. Gemma’s Hospice Hospice site.Whether the patient is a novice or recreational artist, the team finds an appropriate level for them to work, either contributing to a team project or creating I wish to pay by debit card Ì / credit card Ì their own masterpieces. Card number . One such project is the Day Hospice Christmas decorations.Work on the baubles, bells, Valid from … … / … … Expires … … / … … figures and banners starts long before Advent. Always colourful, the decorations make the Day Hospice a winter wonderland and add to the seasonal atmosphere in the run Holder’s name . up to Christmas. One of our patients, Mavis Wood, visits the Day Hospice each Signature . Monday. She says, “I love working in the craft room. I have worked with paint and clay and I let my imagination run wild! I am very proud of the things I have made, but the Date . Christmas baubles were really fun to make.” Mary Curl, Day Hospice Sister, recalls, “The decorations were fantastic and it was really therapeutic for the patients who made Add 28% to the value of your donation them.They all worked tremendously hard and the Day Hospice looked beautiful last Under the new Gift Aid scheme we can reclaim the tax on all donations Christmas. I am sure this year’s display will be equally impressive.” from U.K. taxpayers. This means we can increase the value of each donation by 28p for every pound you give. All you need to do is tick the box below. We will do the rest. Once the decorations are displayed, the festive mood sweeps through the Day Yes Ì I would like St. Gemma’s Hospice to claim back the tax on any Hospice. A Christmas tree is erected to complement the decorations and the atmos- donations I make from 6 April 2000 until I give further notice. phere is wonderful. Particularly enjoyable for Day Hospice patients and staff are the You must pay an amount in income tax or capital gains tax at least equal traditional celebration lunches which are served before Christmas. Surrounded by the to the tax the Hospice reclaims on your donation in the tax year. decorations which the patients themselves have made, Christmas lunch at St. Please send this form in an envelope marked Light up a Life to: Gemma’s Day Hospice certainly does come with all the trimmings! cut out form St. Gemma’s Hospice, FREEPOST NEA9320, Leeds, LS17 7YY visit www.st-gemma.co.uk for our latest news and£ online donations Winter 04 Newsletter QX6 16/11/04 10:44 Page 4 Letters to Santa Tell Santa what you would like for Christmas and he’ll help us raise money. For a £5 donation we will forward your letter to Santa’s secret address in Lapland. In return you will receive a personal reply and small Christmas gift from the man himself! For more information call Giles on 0113 218 5559. You never know who’s reading it… Sharp-eyed volunteer, Mike Saunders, saw an article in the summer edition of the St. Gemma’s Newsletter. It was just a paragraph about one of our doctors Mongolian Horse Riding Challenge addressing a conference about the diagnosis and assessment of depression in palliative care. Mike Keen horse riders, Amanda Keighley and Gill Haque, are setting off in June 2005 for the then made the connection between depression and challenge of a lifetime to raise money for St. Gemma’s Hospice. The St. Gemma’s Pudsey mental illness, which was fortunate, as he is the Vice Charity Shop Manager and Deputy Manager will be taking part in a Mongolian Horse Riding President of the Rosemary Fellowship, a Trust that Challenge next year to raise over £5,000 for the Hospice.Travelling 100 miles on horseback works to help people living with mental illness. over ten days is a challenge the two are already preparing for. Amanda says, ‘We are so excit- ed about the trip and can’t wait to get started raising money and getting ready for going. Gill The Fellowship’s Trustees are currently in the and I both ride horses regularly but this will be something completely different, with a very process of winding down the trust and Mike knew different breed of horse in a very different country and terrain.’ they had been looking for some considerable time to find a charity that could meet their criteria of devel- Hopefully the stunning scenery of the Mongolian landscape will make up entirely for the sad- oping care for those living with mental health issues. dle sore bottoms they will undoubtedly experience! If you would like to sponsor Amanda & St. Gemma’s was approached to see if we could Gill, think you can support them by donating money, time or equipment, or have any carry out research to develop further our under- fundraising ideas that might be useful for them they would love to hear from you.You can standing of how people with depression can be learn more about their trip and sponsor them online at www.st-gemma.co.uk. Or call Laura identified and helped within palliative care. The on 0113 218 5505 to find out more. results of such a research project would be far- reaching, both across the UK and around the world. The end result is that the Trustees of the Rosemary Fellowship unanimously voted to grant their remaining funds to St. Gemma’s to set up a research project that Yorkshire in Bloom will begin in September 2005. The grant will be in excess of £50,000 and will fund a PhD research fellow for one year and cover all support costs. The We are once again delighted to have won our category in the Yorkshire in Bloom project will be supervised by our own Consultants, Dr awards 2004. Mike Bennett and Dr Mike Stockton, with external supervision from the Consultant Psychiatrist for the Our application was submitted earlier in the year and we were contacted in Leeds Mental Health Trust, Dr Manoj Kumar. June to advise that the Yorkshire in Bloom Gardens Inspectors would be visiting on the 6th July. Chief Executive interim arrangements All the planting, mowing, digging and hard work that takes place throughout the year certainly paid off, as the gardens and grounds looked breathtaking this sum- As we mentioned in our last Newsletter, Steve Kirk mer, thanks to our gardener, Denis, and his team of green fingered volunteers will be leaving his post as Chief Executive at St including Marion Whyte, Bob Cooper and our regular helpers from HBOS. Gemma’s Hospice in October. Steve’s replacement should be in post early in the New Year but we are Needless to say, the Yorkshire in Bloom judges were very impressed with our gar- delighted to announce the appointment of Sister dens this year, and particularly our wild meadow, herb garden and wheelchair Brigid Murphy as acting Chief Executive for the accessible wildlife water area. We were very proud, once again, to win first prize interim period. in our category of Public, Private and Charitable Establishments. Sister Brigid has been Director of Spiritual Care at Well done and a big thank you to all concerned. the Hospice for six years and is a member of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion who founded the Hospice in 1978. Winter 04 Newsletter QX6 16/11/04 10:45 Page 5 Putting patients and carers at the heart of everything we do St. Gemma’s Hospice’s staff and volunteers are committed to respecting all patients, carers and visitors as well as one another.