Dorothy House provides a huge range of care services for the terminally ill, their relatives and their carers. This care includes inpatient and outpatient services at the hospices as well as outreach into the community through home visits, and includes long-term support for bereaved families. This last point is especially important for children who have lost a parent.
On 7 May 2022, Paul Vosper will cycle between the 26 Dorothy House shops and hospices across Somerset and Wiltshire: as far west as Keynsham, north to Malmesbury, east as far as Devizes and south as far as Salisbury. This will involve a distance of 360km and over 3500m of climbing: it is about as tough as a day’s cycling can be.
Paul is cycling in aid of Dorothy House in order to give something back to the hospice after its care of his late wife, Jean. Dorothy House supported Paul and his family through the difficult terminal phase of Jean’s life, and continue to help beyond her death at the age of just 57 in April 2021. Jean was diagnosed with breast cancer on Christmas Eve 2015 (not the best Christmas present she had received), and then went through over a year of treatment including chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and a whole host of drugs to fight the cancer and to moderate the side effects. By 2017 Paul and the family thought Jean was clear of cancer, but by the end of 2018 the cancers had returned, and by then were terminal.
It was at this terminal phase that Dorothy House became involved and provided support for 2 ½ years until Jean’s death. The support provided was superb, even though much was affected by the Covid 19 restrictions and lockdowns Dorothy House was still there for Jean. The final three weeks of Jean’s life when she was an inpatient at the Winsley Hospice were made bearable by the care, compassion and dedication of all the staff. All this is done through donations as only a tiny amount of the Dorothy House funding comes from the NHS.
If you want to help then you can visit Paul’s Just-giving page: Justgiving.com/fundraising/Paul-Vosper. You can also be at a Dorothy House shop to cheer him on. See Paul’s full route here: strava.com