Viva Brighton Issue #65 July 2018

BITS AND BOBS
...............................
CHARITY BOX #27: FRIENDS OF SUSSEX HOSPICES
Kemptown resident Duncan Stewart has
completed a 200-mile walk around Sussex to
raise money for our local hospices.
The walk was organised by the
Friends of Sussex Hospices, an organisation
which raises and distributes money
to the twelve hospices in Sussex. This
trail was devised as a fundraiser: it’s got
26 sections, which are between six miles
and eleven miles each. I did the first section,
from Brighton Station to Saltdean,
in May last year and the last one about a month ago.
I’m still getting some contributions, but I think so far
I’ve raised over £4,000.
I used to be a GP. When I retired I was asked by
Martlets Hospice to join their income board and I
work half a day there as a Volunteer Pastoral Care
Support Worker. There is some funding
for the hospices, but Martlets, for example,
has to raise 80% of its ongoing cost, which
is over £5 million a year. It has an inpatient
unit, which can take 18 people, but in fact
the way in which end-of-life care is now
moving is towards more care at home, so
many more people come in, get their pain
relief sorted out and go back home again.
We’re in the middle of a kind of epidemic
of anxiety, where people are worried
about everything – particularly their health. So one of
the reasons it’s so important to raise awareness of the
excellent work of the hospices is that I think it’s quite
reassuring to know, if you do require any palliative
care, that it’s superbly delivered.
justgiving.com/fundraising/duncan-stewart3