Evening News Buy a Brick Campaign: Building for the future

Published on Friday 23 April 2010 10:11

This week the Evening News and St Columba's launched a fundraising campaign to help build a new home for the well-loved hospice.

Here, SUE GYFORD looks at the vision for the hospice – and where your money will go . . .

FIRSTLY there's the emotions – from despair to anger. Then the practicalities – how will my family cope? What will the doctors do now?

When someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness, there is a whole rollercoaster of thoughts and fears that follow. Few people plan or prepare for such an event – and few, certainly to begin with, know where to turn.

But around 1,000 people every year in the city – and their families and friends – find the care, companionship and support they need at St Columba's Hospice.

For 32 years, tucked away on the hospice's secluded, shore-side plot in Granton, its staff and volunteers have worked in quiet dedication to help others, earning a special place in the hearts of many of the city's residents.

But now it is the hospice's turn because, after many years of helping us, St Columba's now needs our support.

After more than three decades of service, its buildings need a complete renewal, and the hospice is on the verge of a huge project to rebuild and revitalise its home.

The project will cost 26 million, with 7m still to be raised. Now we are asking our readers to dig deep and donate to the Evening News Buy a Brick campaign, to kick-start the fundraising.

St Columba's director of fundraising Lesley Christie explains: "Over the years, St Columba's Hospice has provided an exceptional and much-valued service to many people in Edinburgh and the Lothians and this is the time when we really need people to help us by giving something back, to ensure that we will still be here to provide that service for future generations.

"Their gift will contribute towards the rebuilding of the hospice and will allow us to pay for all the things that we need to make the new hospice a reality. And that could be anything from the builders to the concrete, the finishes, the beds."

Rather than build afresh on a new out-of-town site, St Columba's will remain at its current home in Boswall Road. In the heart of a leafy residential area, it has stunning views across the Forth which can lift the spirits of those struggling through the darkest of times.

Hospice staff are committed to continuing their work during the project, with building carried out in carefully-managed phases.

Work is due to start later this year, beginning with the education department and be completed by 2014.

But the rebuild is about more than bricks and mortar. At the heart of St Columba's are its people. More than 150 staff and around 500 volunteers work together to make the hospice what it is, and the needs of the team, their patients and relatives are at the very heart of the project.

In fact, project lead, Alison Allan, was until January 2009 the nursing sister of the day hospice. She began by advising on staff needs for the future, and that input became so central to the project that she was asked to turn full-time project manager.

She explains: "It was important that it was somebody who had an understanding of the needs of the staff and of the patients and the families, and to tie that in with what was happening and look at the changes and see how we're developing our services.

"I think the changes reflect the changes that we've seen in palliative care since we've started. Patients have more complicated needs – for example, there are more different types of drugs and rules about how you store drugs.

"It's about looking at what we require to continue to provide specialist palliative care in the future and making sure we have the space to do that for our staff and patients.

"I think what's important is that St Columba's are making a huge commitment to continue palliative care for the community."

And we are asking you to help them meet that commitment. To buy your brick, simply go online or pick up the phone (see panel).

Lesley explains: "People can dedicate their virtual brick in memory of somebody whose life they want to celebrate or to commemorate a special occasion in either their life or the lives of somebody close to them – a birthday, or a wedding, or a birth. Or they can just give in their own name. Each brick will be depicted on the website in our online donor book and when we open our new hospice, we will have a commemorative book in the reception and everyone who has given or made a dedication will have it acknowledged."

And however much you can give, your donation will be valued, she says: "Whether it's 1 or whether it's a million pounds, every single contribution will help us to raise the full amount that we need to rebuild the hospice."

Nursing and administrative director, Margaret Dunbar, adds: "St Columba's is very much part of the Edinburgh community and we want to continue to provide specialist, high quality palliative care.

"But the building is past its sell-by date. None of us know what lies ahead of us – none of us knows when we or our loved ones may require the care that the hospice provides, and the hospice needs to be here. We know the people of Edinburgh want St Columba's to continue and we need everyone's help to achieve our aims."

One person who knows just what a difference the hospice can make is Karen Arundel, whose father, George Duncanson, died at the hospice in October 1999. She is now a volunteer there, and urges everyone to donate whatever they can. She said the care of hospice staff made all the difference to her father as his prostate cancer worsened: "It just made him feel safe. There was always someone there at the end of the bell – if he was in pain he just knew that someone was going to come. It meant we could concentrate on him, rather than his illness. It's such a fantastic place, and you don't realise you need it until something like that happens."

'BRIGHT, MODERN WARDS FOR PATIENTS, FAMILIES AND STAFF'

THE St Columba's Hospice project will see the inpatient areas completely rebuilt on two floors, creating bright, modern wards for patients, families and staff. The current total of 30 beds will remain, but the number of single rooms will rise from eight to 18, with each having an en suite bathroom.

The remaining beds will be in three-bedded rooms instead of four, allowing greater occupancy rates of single-sex wards. Patients will have direct access from their wards to the gardens or to a balcony – even those who are bedridden can get out to enjoy the outdoors. There will also be more rooms where families can stay overnight.

A new non-denominational "sacred space" will be created with a large picture window overlooking the Forth.

The day hospice, which patients can visit from home for medical and social support, will move into a newly-refurbished space, which will include facilities such as a complementary therapy room. And the education centre, which trains the doctors and nurses of tomorrow in end-of-life care, will move into a new property across the road.