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5 ways you can support #SecondhandSeptember

August 27, 2021Blog Latest News

1. Take the pledge

With a new season and a new school term just around the corner, it’s tempting to think about buying a whole new autumn wardrobe. This September, we want you to join us in rethinking that. Rather than hitting the high street and buying new, we want you to pledge to live more sustainably by taking on the challenge of buying no new clothes and donating your preloved ones for the whole month. As well as improving your carbon footprint and helping the planet, you will help St Gemma’s Hospice by supporting palliative and end of life care for people in the community.

2. Donate your preloved items

Did you know that the majority of people only wear 20% of their wardrobe? So, if you have a dress or jumper that you wore once to a party or have fallen out of love with, now is your chance to donate it for someone else to make one of their staple wardrobe items.

You can drop off your preloved clothing and accessories at any of our charity shops across Leeds or at our warehouse in Bramley. You can also book a home collection for any larger items you have.

We accept men’s, women’s and children’s clothes, shoes, handbags, toys and games, books, music, bric-a-brac, electrical items (not large white goods) and furniture.

3. Support our stores

We have 23 shops across Leeds, so whether you’re in the city centre, Moortown or West Park, you’re never far from one.

Each Shop Manager and our amazing volunteers work hard sorting through donations and filling our shops with unique dresses, jumpers, jeans and much more. And it’s not just clothes you can get for a bargain; you can find accessories, books and homeware and you can also buy preloved furniture in our Chapel Allerton furniture store.

Pop in to your nearest store and say hello to our friendly team, see some fantastic window displays and buy second hand this September!

4. Order online

As well as buying second hand in our stores around Leeds, you can also shop with us online.

If you prefer to purchase from the comfort of your sofa, we have an amazing range of items available in our online stores. You’ll find a variety of clothing, accessories and homeware in our ebay store, some fantastic one of a kind pieces on our depop page and discounted designer brands if you shop with us on Vinted.

Our ecommerce team pride themselves on quick delivery and fantastic customer service. Read some of our latest reviews.

5. Tag us on social

Raise awareness of living more sustainably and keep the conversation going all while supporting St Gemma’s. If you visit one of our stores or purchase an item online, take a photo and tag us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #SecondhandSeptember

We couldn’t provide the specialist care we do without your support. Our charity shops are our biggest source of income and raise £3 million each year towards running all of our services.

Thank you.

Hospice Care Everywhere – End of Life Care for People Experiencing Homelessness

February 22, 2021Blog Latest News

People experiencing homelessness can find accessing end of life care to be challenging. St Gemma’s has launched a project aimed at improving access to palliative care for people who are homeless in Leeds.

Despite the ongoing pressures of managing a pandemic, St Gemma’s has continued to innovate and reach out to groups and individuals in the community who may need our care but can’t easily access it. We have identified that people experiencing homelessness rarely receive palliative or end of life care, despite often having complex needs and health problems.

In response to this, our new project aims to improve palliative care support for homeless people across Leeds and provide dignity and support at the end of life.

Sleeping bag of a homeless person spread on the stairs in front of a modern posh lounge or restaurant. There is a small metal cup near the berth asking for alms and charity.

Leading the innovative project for St Gemma’s is Senior Nurse, Nicky Hibbert who explained: “Homeless people are particularly vulnerable when it comes to accessing healthcare. Many of them are relatively young and may die of diseases which are preventable or treatable such as tuberculosis or pneumonia. Their deaths may be sudden and they generally do not receive end of life care. Their deaths may lack any dignity.

“We have found that many people experiencing homelessness don’t engage with healthcare services. Many of them are unwell, but it’s not easy to assess them, give a clear diagnosis or predict how their condition might develop. It might even just be a challenge making an initial contact with someone. We were really keen to tackle this inequality, and ensure that anyone needing our care would be offered it.

Head and shoulder portrait of a smiling nurse with dark brown hair wearing a dark blue uniform.

“We’ve been working with a whole range of other organisations supporting homeless people across Leeds including local hostels, charities and support groups. We’ve been building lasting relationships with them, providing training and support to give them confidence to help identify anyone particularly vulnerable and know how to contact us quickly if they need us. We have also made it clear that St Gemma’s care is not just in the hospice building, which some may find intimidating – we provide most of our care in the Leeds community wherever people live, whether that be at someone’s home, in a care home, in a homeless hostel, or sadly on the street.

“In one month alone, more homeless people were referred to our services than we’d had in the previous 5 years.”

“So far, we’ve made good progress. In one month alone, more homeless people were referred to our services than we’d had in the previous 5 years. The project team has worked with patients in a number of ways including: helping with pain and other symptoms, supporting people to regain contact with loved ones, assisting individuals to receive benefits, supporting them to attend for hospital treatment, recording their end of life wishes and preferences and ultimately supporting them to die in a safe place of their choice.

“It is truly humbling when we can give someone the care they need when they need it the most.”

The project is kindly being supported by The Masonic Charitable Foundation via Hospice UK and the Gwyneth Forrester Trust.

The Year in Numbers 2019/20

February 11, 2021Blog Latest News

In the last year, St Gemma’s supported over 3,000 local people in the Hospice’s In-Patient Unit, through the St Gemma’s community team supporting patients and families at home and in care homes, and via a range of Day Services.

St Gemma’s welcomes and provides care – completely free of charge – to everyone regardless of people’s age, gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or diagnosis.

Smiling physiotherapist demonstrating an exercise to a patient

Care is provided by a range of specially trained staff including: nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, complementary therapists and a spiritual care team. Our expert team works together to ensure the needs of patients and carers are met. We also work closely with other care providers in the city to ensure a seamless service for people across Leeds.

Families and carers are supported by the Hospice’s specialist bereavement workers who provide support to all, including children and young people.

Read on for a snapshot of another busy year…

Always Caring…

In 2019/20, 1,355 local people were referred to St Gemma’s care for the first time.

There were 511 admissions onto the Hospice’s In-Patient Unit; we are one of the few hospices that accepts admissions 24 hours a day.

The St Gemma’s community team of doctors and nurses had 5,036 face-to-face consultations with patients living at home or in care homes.

There were 1,711 attendances to St Gemma’s Day Services, with increasing numbers of people accessing the new range of clinics and sessions.

Your feedback…

Your feedback helps us to constantly learn and improve our services so they can better meet your needs and the needs of other families across Leeds.

In 2019/20, this is what you told us:

99% of bereaved people surveyed felt their loved one was cared for in the right place.

“You made such a positive impact on our lives in a short period of time. We will forever be thankful…”

“You don’t just care for the patient, you care for everyone around them with skill and humility.”

Your vital support…

St Gemma’s is only here because of the support you, our community of supporters, give every year. This support takes many forms:

In 2019/20, you helped to raise £11.6m so we could continue providing vital services and investing in raising money for the next year.

986 volunteers contributed 129,813 hours across all areas of the Hospice, saving St Gemma’s thousands of valuable pounds.

605,673 customers to our chain of 24 charity shops bought 1,169,228 items and helped to raise over £3m towards patient care.

The Year in Numbers…

Infographic displaying the year in review numbers

This is just a brief overview of some of our work this year. We couldn’t list everything, but thank you to everyone who has contributed in any way.

For detailed information about our activities, finances and governance, please visit www.st-gemma.co.uk/keypublications.

Caring During Covid: Six Months Reflection

January 12, 2021Blog Latest News

Covid has brought many challenges for all of us, but thanks to your support St Gemma’s has continued to be here to care for local patients and their families. These are some of the things we achieved together during the first six months of the pandemic.

Every achievement of St Gemma’s is only possible thanks to you, our unfaltering community of supporters. Your amazing support and the way you stood by the Hospice in 2020 was absolutely incredible. Thank you.

Caring for patients and their families…

Continued care for patients including those with Covid-19
260 patients admitted for In-Patient care
1,733 face-to-face consultations with patients at home
Video assessments and telephone consultations with patients at home and in care homes
Visiting by families supported safely
‘Keep in touch’ service for letters, photos and messages to In-Patients.

Here for patients’ loved ones…

St Gemma’s is here for the whole family and Covid hasn’t changed that. Thanks to your support, we have been able to adapt our services and ensure that we are still there for our patients’ loved ones when they need us.

Established a Covid-19 family support line for Leeds
Supporting a regional bereavement helpline
Developed a Covid-specific funeral planning pack
Virtual meetings with bereaved children supporting by the Young People’s Service
Day out at Flamingo Lane for bereaved children and their families
Continued to provide bereavement counselling and support to adults.

Raising the funds and showing our appreciation…

The way we fundraise has been hugely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic but you have risen to the challenge – as have our talented fundraising team.

Reassured public that we are financially stable and care continues
Planning and setting new budgets
Amazing ongoing support from donors
Phoned hundreds of supporters to thank them for their donations
Regular updates to donors on our achievements
Worked closely with NHS Leeds CCG and Hospice UK to influence funding for the hospice sector
Adapted to the changing world – cancelled many events but innovated to raise money in new ways
Reopened most of our charity; astonishing response from customers and stock donations.

Supporting the workforce…

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the wellbeing of our workforce has been a priority. These are some of the ways we’ve ensured that our team are supported and kept in the loop.

Set up a Senior Covid Task Group who meet regularly
Regular briefings and updates including staff support sessions and post-shift debriefs
Covid-specific team webpages with latest updates, FAQs and resources
Created an online wellbeing hub
Regular virtual ‘Question Time’ sessions with the Chief Executive
Supported staff to work at home including new IT equipment, software and home-working handbook
Board of Trustees adapted, meeting more frequently online, supporting rapid decision making
Robust stock of personal protective equipment (PPE) and training in safe PPE use
Covid-secure Hospice site
Individual staff risk assessments.

Playing our part in the city…

We are proud to be part of the local community and lucky to work with so many fantastic colleagues from healthcare organisations across the city. This collaboration ensures people in Leeds can receive the best possible care – care that is always adapting and improving. These are some of the ways we have done this since the start of the pandemic.

As a University Teaching Hospice, we also share our palliative care expertise and research nationally and internationally. This year we have been able to do this through virtual education for healthcare professional across the world.

Played active role in city-wide pandemic leadership and response groups, including establishing a Community End of Life Care Covid group
Continued to accept referrals from across the city
Worked with health professionals across all sectors to advise, support, and influence decisions about patient care
Supported Leeds Palliative Care Network to create an advice line and resources for health professionals
Supported and training staff for new Yorkshire Nightingale Hospital
Provided tailored online training for staff and health and care colleagues, locally and internationally, including: symptom management of patients with Covid-19, PPE training, Advance Care Planning guidance, Verification of Expected Death
Supported care homes staff with training and patient advice.

Thank you to everyone who has supported St Gemma’s in any way and made these achievements possible.

Path of Life Improvements

November 2, 2020Blog Latest News

The Path of Life remembrance garden at the Hospice provides a space of quiet reflection and remembrance and is home to many of our Walls of Light. Thanks to a grant from HSBC, we have been able to work with local garden designers LemonBalm, to carry out some improvements to the Path of Life. This is the garden on the left hand side of the Hospice car park.

Scroll for the latest updates as work gets underway!

As an important space for many people, we wanted your input to help shape the space and ensure it is fit for purpose as a tranquil place of remembrance. Therefore, as part of the improvement work, we sent a survey to people who have bricks on the Walls of Light along the Path of Life, and others who have recently supported the Hospice in memory of someone.

From the responses, a few key themes and issues were identified. Some of these were: not enough seating for people to spend time in the garden, a sense of being overlooked from the car park and Hospice buildings, a need for more depth and colour in the planting.

LemonBalm created a design (pictured below) to solve these problems. Their concept for the garden has been broken down into five “mini-gardens”: a welcome garden, a woodland wildlife garden, a sun garden, the terrace and a secret garden. These gardens will be updated in phases, starting with the welcome garden and woodland wildlife garden for Phase 1.

Diagram of the proposed changes - the path is split into different zones

The work for Phase 1 is due to start on 5^th November and will go on for five weeks, so it will be completed before the Christmas period. During this time, access to the Path of Life will be closed. If you have any questions about visiting or anything else, please call Sophia on 0113 218 5506 or email on sophial@st-gemma.co.uk.

Phase 1 will also include installing lights along the Path of Life, to improve visibility, safety and a feeling of warmth for people visiting the garden at any time throughout the year. These lights will also illuminate the Walls of Light at night, which we know is important to families with bricks in memory of loved ones.

Over the course of the year, we are hoping to hold some planting and remembrance days on the Path of Life. However, this will depend on guidance and restrictions due to Covid-19, so we will continue to monitor what we could do for these and update you in due course.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey and contributed to the future vision of the Path of Life.

Update week commencing 9th November

This week the landscapers broke ground and began preparing the beds for planting. Behind these walls of light will be a wild flower meadow, which will look great and also encourage pollinators to visit the garden. On a chilly morning site visit we noticed that a spider had made a web on our temporary fencing.

Update week commencing 23rd November

Last week was busy on the Path of Life! LemonBalm have planted over 100 plants and bulbs in the welcome garden. They have also built and filled the habitat tower from reclaimed pallets and materials.

The landscapers have been busy building the posts and cairns, putting a new seat on the long bench and have skilfully crafted an amazing bird house! Finally, they’ve also been planting up the woodland wildlife garden and will sow the meadow seeds ready for the spring.

Update week commencing 4th January 2021

This week we have a video update where garden designers LemonBalm walk us through some of the latest developments on the Path of Life.

The Mosaic

Zoomed out view of a circular mosaic on the ground surrounded by paving bricks.

“Out of the darkness comes light and love”

This beautiful mosaic is now in place on the Path of Life. The fantastic team at Seagulls created the mosaic with input from St Gemma’s staff and supporters to create something truly special to the Hospice.

Seagulls carried out virtual workshops and socially-distanced drop-in sessions to gather ideas for mosaic. The mosaic is a unique focal point in the remembrance garden and we look forward to when it can be enjoyed by many.

Chief Nurse Heather McClelland reflects on the last six months

October 30, 2020Blog Latest News

Chief Nurse Heather McClelland reflects on the last six months at St Gemma’s and how the Hospice has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic:

“It’s hard to put into words how much we have achieved as an organisation over the last few months. We started the year full of our usual ambition and energy, not knowing that a global pandemic would take hold and change our lives at work and at home.

Our first formal internal ‘Cobra’ meeting took place on 6 March when we set up a pandemic group and started to put plans into place. We scrutinised (as we still do) every piece of emerging government guidance to ensure we understood the implications for our charity. Whatever the guidance, our first priority was, and still is, staff and patient safety – both in the Hospice and out in the community.

It has been remarkable to see colleagues in all areas transforming the way they work individually and as teams. Many staff spent weeks or months working at their kitchen tables. Others donned full PPE (personal protective equipment) and carried on living up to our motto – Always Caring.

Behind the scenes, we closed our charity shops, postponed fundraising events, and cancelled a whole calendar of training and teaching sessions in our Academic Unit. That’s as well as implementing social distancing measures across the site and giving most staff a crash course in online meetings such as Zoom.

Many things have been challenging along the way, such as the unbearable decisions about In-Patient visiting – should we allow visitors, how many and for how long? None of us enjoyed having to impose restrictions of any kind at such a difficult time. But we worked through it, keeping the patient and those around them at the heart of all our decisions.

The most remarkable thing is the resilience and flexibility of staff across the whole organisation. Most of our services have continued as before, albeit with some adjustments. But the teams continue to transform the way they work and we’ve even managed to develop new services and support for patients during the year.

Our community team have used video conferencing with patients, enabling them to have conversations about pain, fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath and also about planning for the future. This was a really great innovation for us and enabled us to continue to see patients when face-to-face contact wasn’t possible.

The Day Services team have also been busy developing new ways of supporting and keeping in touch with patients. They have been sending regular updates and the weekly drop-in sessions, carers’ group, and Breeze group, which supports patients with Breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety management, are all now online via Zoom.

Patients who can’t be supported virtually are having any symptoms managed either by telephone support or face-to-face home visits. And we are now beginning to offer Out-Patient appointments once again.

Early in the pandemic we set up a telephone support line for anyone dealing with a bereavement. This has now evolved into a new regional helpline, the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Grief and Loss Support Service. St Gemma’s staff and volunteers are involved in supporting the service, which is available to anyone living in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate area who is feeling sad or upset about people dying during the coronavirus pandemic. There is a telephone support line and a live online chat facility where people can talk to a trained professional about how they are feeling. It is open 7 days per week, 8am-8pm.

Our Family Support Team also developed a practical funeral guide to help anyone planning a funeral during the pandemic. Losing a loved one is difficult at any time, but the current restrictions make things even harder than usual.

All in all, I’ve seen the teams rise to the challenge and I’m truly proud of the way we have responded to this crisis as an organisation.”