"I was reluctant to attend the hospice. It was the last straw, hospices were places where people went to die, and many of us do! But I soon found it was also for living. It gives me the courage to face my problem day by day, to be me. To be able to cry when I feel low or in pain, to laugh when I feel happy, to talk about my illness as and when I need to without feeling I need to consider those around me. To be able to go where we can talk and be ourselves is vital. We know while we are at the hospice we are in safe and knowledgeable hands – and so do our families."

A hospice patient

Help the Hospices is the national charity for the hospice movement. We support local hospices in their vital work on the front line of caring for people who face the end of life.

Help the Hospice’s vision is of a world in which the best possible care is available to all people at the end of life, whatever their circumstances.

Hospice and palliative care aims to give people the best quality of care at the end of life and support the needs of their families, friends and carers. It offers an holistic approach of physical, emotional and spiritual care to alleviate the suffering of those dying throughout the world.

Key facts on hospice care

Hospice Care is one of the UK’s outstanding success stories – from its modern beginnings in 1967 it has grown into a worldwide movement that has transformed the way we approach death and dying.

Caring for millions of people every year. UK hospice care for approximately 250,000 people. But this care also extends to and affects their relatives, colleagues and friends. This means the hospice movement touches the lives of literally millions of people, every year.

Hospice Care focuses on the ‘whole person’ and aims to meet their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.

Hospices aren’t just buildings. Hospice care may support the person and those close to them, at home, in day care and/or in the hospice, depending on what they want and need.

Hospice Care is provided for adults and children. Most hospice care is provided by independent local charitable hospices – independent charities in their own right and there are over 220 of them across the UK. In addition, some hospice care is provided in special units linked to hospitals (run by NHS) and a smaller number by national charities Marie Curie Cancer Care and Sue Ryder Care.

For more information about children’s hospice care, click here: www.childhospice.org.uk

Hospice Care is provided completely free of charge – but the costs of running such services are high. The government contributes an average of 35% of running costs for adult hospices and 5% of children’s hospices (based on latest figures available). The rest has to be found by charitable fundraising and collectively local hospices must raise over £300 million, making it the biggest fundraising cause in the UK.

Although hospices mainly care for people with cancer, they also support people with other life-threatening illnesses. If you would like to talk to someone further about hospice care, please contact hospice information on 0870 903 3903. Hospice Information is a partnership between Help the Hospices and St Christopher’s Hospice, London.