Amy is one of our Living Well patients. She comes along to our weekly sessions at the Beacon Centre in Guildford, where our team of nursing staff, therapists, doctors, advisors and counsellors help patients to manage living everyday life with their illness. Amy is also visited weekly by Jo, one of our Home Support volunteers.
“I was referred to Phyllis Tuckwell in December,” said Amy. “I went to see my heart failure nurse at Fleet hospital, and she referred me. I was surprised because the very next day someone from Phyllis Tuckwell rang up and told me about all the things that they do and asked would I be interested in going along. I said yes!”
Our Living Well team runs two eight-week programmes, Living Well with Illness and the Creative programme. Each programme offers a weekly two-hour session, focussing on different aspects of living with an advanced or terminal illness, such as diet and nutrition, coping with fatigue, and managing your mood. Our Creative programme, which Amy attends, includes sessions on music, gardening and cooking. Patients are supported to use their creative skills, enabling them to focus on something other than their illness, allowing them to interact socially with each other and our staff, and giving them a sense of achievement. Some patients find that they are no longer able to participate in activities which they used to enjoy, such as cooking, gardening, playing a musical instrument or painting, and these sessions enable them to do those things again. Taking part reduces their stress and anxiety levels, and boosts their confidence and wellbeing.
“I love it because we do lots of different things,” said Amy. “First of all, I went to a gardening session, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. And one session was memories in a bottle. It’s nice meeting other people and talking to them. When we did the memories session, one of the other patients had all these photos he’d brought in. He said do you know where that is? It’s Land’s End, and I said Oh I've been there! We used to walk with the ramblers a lot, and we went on holiday to Cornwall and walked around there. Yesterday we did lotions and potions. We made sniff sticks and hand creams. You had a little dish and put drops of the different oils into it, and you put this little thing in to soak up the oil and then put that into the tube of the stick. You can smell the oils; it’s lovely to sniff, it really clears your nose. You can choose whichever oils you want. Mine’s lavender and peppermint. And I made a moisturising cream too, for my dry skin. You get the cream and put drops of the oils into it and mix it up. Mine’s got myrrh, geranium and sandalwood in it. It’s really interesting to do these things, and lovely to be able to take them home with you afterwards.”
The Lotions and Potions session is run by our complementary therapists, who also offer therapies such as massages, aromatherapy and reiki. Amy has had a massage on her neck and shoulders, where her muscles get stiff, and is looking forward to having a reiki session soon.
"Next week we’re doing a session on music,” she said. “You choose what piece of music you like, what memory it brings back. When my husband retired, he got a keyboard and I bought him a pair of headphones, and when he managed to conquer something he used to come down and play it to me. The first one he learnt was ‘When the saints go marching in’ and he played it so enthusiastically! So I chose that one as my song.”
Because she doesn’t drive anymore and can’t get to the sessions on her own, Amy is picked up by one of our volunteer drivers, who take her there and drop her back home again afterwards.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “I couldn’t go otherwise. They’re lovely drivers. We have a chat on the way; we talk about lots of different things. I go every Wednesday and I look forward to it. I didn't realise that I could go to so many things. There’s another one, a tai chi session, that I’m going to do, too. I used to do tai chi and keep fit sessions, but I can’t drive anymore so I stopped going. It’ll be nice to be able to do it again. I made a bird house too, at the gardening session. It was a kit; I made it and painted it.”
“You’re very artistic, it’s beautifully decorated,” said Jo, Amy’s Home Support volunteer. Jo visits Amy every week, for around three hours, to offer help and companionship. Because of their illness, many of our patients find it harder to manage around the house, go out for walks or to the local shops, or attend medical appointments. Our Home Support service pairs patients with volunteers, who can take them out shopping, go for a walk together, drive them to a local garden centre or café, or simply sit and have a chat with them over a cup of tea. Living with an advanced or terminal illness can cause stress and anxiety, and can be lonely too. These volunteers make a real difference to patients’ lives, providing practical and emotional support and companionship at a difficult time.
"I’ve been a Home Support volunteer for the last three months,” said Jo. “I visit Amy weekly and get a lot of pleasure from it. The main reason I wanted to do it is because when my mum was poorly, I was visiting her regularly in hospital, and spent a lot of time talking to the other patients there too. When she got better, Mum said I think you should do something like this and I thought why not? I chose to volunteer for Phyllis Tuckwell as it’s a charity that’s local to me, and I’m really glad that I did - I get a lot from it.”
