Coming of age for Keech Hospice Care
Keech chief executive Mike Keel
Keech Hospice Care chief executive Mike Keel talks about the hospice as it reaches its 21st birthday...
It was back in the late 1980s that a local GP had the idea of creating an adult hospice for Luton and South Bedfordshire.
After years of hard work and fundraising, Dr ‘Wink’ White’s idea became a reality in April 1991.
Since then the charity has served the community ensuring those people at the end of their life receive the very best care and are treated with respect and dignity.
The service has grown to include a children’s hospice.
Opened in 2000, the children’s hospice supports families in Luton, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes.
Just as it must have been difficult for Dr White to imagine how his idea would grow and flourish as it has done, so it is for the charity to predict where it will be in another 21 years.
However, what is clear is that the demand for the charity’s services is not and will not diminish.
We can only hope the community’s enthusiasm and commitment to support their charity as loyally and generously as they have will continue.
We need to ensure the next generations can have the same expert care as their parents and grandparents may have had over the past 21 years.
Our 21st birthday comes at a time when funding of the hospice is uncertain.
The recession means people feel less able to give to charity and government cuts put the small contribution the hospice does receive from the NHS at risk.
Like AgeUK, we worry that spending cuts could leave those who are terminally ill and dying at risk of absolutely no support at all – or of poor quality and limited support.
For us to ensure our services are available to those who will need us in the next 21 years, the charity must work hard to engage new supporters – those baby boomers of the 1950s and 1960s whose own parents and families are now starting to use our services – we must find new donors and friends to help us do more for their communities and safeguard the future of this vital service.
Please find out how you can help by visiting our special birthday website (keechis21.org.uk). You can donate £5 or £10 now by texting KHCB21£5 or KHCB21£10 to 70070.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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