"I have found the hospice to be a place of great compassion, of healing and of fun. The healing we are experiencing is not necessarily physical. I think that over the door of the hospice we could have a banner with the words "This way to a brand new experience" ".
Hospices are places of laughter, love and life.
They are positive and friendly places, where you might have your dog stay with you, have a gin and tonic, receive beauty treatments or have your family with you day and night. They set out to provide as much of a "home from home" as possible, and offer both privacy and social contact.
They also welcome everybody - all races, all ages and all religions.
Hospices give time and care to people with incurable illnesses. Every year, they help 250,000 terminally ill adults and children to live life to the full, whatever time they have left.
Each of these patients will be a mother or father, brother or sister, friend or colleague. At home, in day care and in the hospice, care is tailored to the needs of each individual, and is given free of charge.
95% of hospice patients have cancer-related conditions, but hospices also care for people with a variety of other incurable illnesses.
Hospice care is based on a simple idea - that the person is more than the illness. Hospices try to respond to the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of each person. They do this by offering pain control, symptom relief, skilled nursing care, counseling, complementary therapies, spiritual care, creative activities, physiotherapy, bereavement support and many other services.
They also offer care to family and friends, giving practical and emotional support both during the patient's life and into bereavement.
In this way, hospice care touches the lives of around one million people every year.
Working in a hospice is endlessly rewarding, but it is also demanding.
Because hospices offer care based on personal choice, the skills needed to provide such care are highly varied and specialised.
Hospice nurses provide outstanding medical care, but their job involves so much more beyond that. They lend a sympathetic and understanding ear, share a joke, provide a shoulder to cry on, supervise budgets, train and mentor colleagues, handle management issues and are ready with informed advice.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of the hospice movement. Every year, hospices benefit from the commitment and skills of around 100,000 volunteers every year. They undertake a huge variety of work, from running support groups for carers and driving patients to appointments to running reception and teaching arts to day-care patients.
Hospices also rely on the skills of many other staff: fundraisers, complementary therapists, learning disability specialists, managers, social workers, counselors, Trustees, chaplains and many others.
Hospices are the largest fundraising cause in the country.
There are over 220 local adult and children's hospices in the UK. Most are small local charities who on average receive just 33% funding from the government. All the rest needs to be fundraised for, meaning that hospices collectively need to raise £400 million to keep going every year.
For more information about hospice care and to find details of your own local hospice, please visit: www.hospiceinformation.info