Our patients urgently need new pressure relieving mattresses to prevent bedsores and give comfort. Please can you help them?
Yes, I want to give ultimate comfort to terminally ill people
Thanks to people’s generosity we have raised enough to fund 8 new specialist pressure care mattresses for St Luke’s Inpatient Unit. This will significantly prevent people from getting bedsores because the mattress works with a special pump that continually inflates and deflates air to maintain body movement and stop pressure building up in one area. This is important because our patients aren’t always well enough to move from side to side in a bed like we can.
Bedsores are a common problem for people with an end of life illness. Thankfully, our patients no longer have to be physically re-positioned every 2 to 3 hours to prevent distressing bedsores. The donations have given people the ultimate comfort – thank you!
You can still donate to our mattress appeal. Your kind gifts will give people compassionate and dignified support in our inpatient unit.
Your kindness will help take away family stresses
Anne shares: ‘When we first came to the Hospice it was so lovely, calm and peaceful. I remember Nurse, Rachel’s smile. She took mum’s hand and gently rubbed it and said, “You’ll be fine. We’ll look after you.” Within a couple of hours, she had started to relax.
Mum was too unwell to go to dad’s funeral so they put a screen up for her to watch it. You could see her lips mouthing the prayers. And then when it was over, she smiled and she just closed her eyes. She was so peaceful and died 3 days later on Christmas Day.
I will never forget this care. The Hospice is just amazing. When you’re in here, you’re in a different world. They take your stresses away. Everything you ask for at St Luke’s they do – they listen.
The carers would come and they’d carefully turn her around because she had blisters from the hospital on her bottom and on her back. They would turn her every couple of hours and they treated her with so much dignity and showed so much compassion.
Everyone should have dignity at the end of life, not be scared, be in comfort and have their loved ones around them. My mum received all this at St Luke’s and died at peace.’
St Luke’s nurse, Maxine shares the impact your donation will make
‘Your generosity will provide more than a mattress. It will help ease people’s aches and pains and significantly improve their quality of life whilst receiving 24-hour compassionate support in St Luke’s Inpatient Unit.
A bedsore can be quite big, deep and painful. We simply don’t want that happening to anyone because it adds a lot of discomfort at the end of life. If a patient suddenly becomes less well and is not in one of our specialist beds, it’s possible that we would have to physically transfer them onto one of the 4 beds that do. As a nurse, I can tell you this is an uncomfortable procedure for a patient who is dying and a manoeuvre that you wouldn’t want to do.
We face an immense pressure for our beds in the winter. Together with your gift, however much you can give, we can provide all of our patients with the same high quality mattress and make everyone’s final journey as comfortable as possible. We would be very grateful if you can help.’
Please donate to our More Than A Mattress Appeal today
Thank you for your incredible support
We have funded new specialist pressure care mattresses in our Inpatient Unit, helping to give the best comfort to our patients and significantly prevent painful bedsores. The money now raised will fund compassionate and dignified care in our Inpatient Unit. Thank you so much.
Prefer to donate over the phone?
If you would like to donate over the phone or have any difficulties donating on our website? Please call our friendly supporter care team on 020 8382 8030 and someone will be happy to help.
