CAMPAIGN SPECIAL: Help us build beacon of hope

IT has provided comfort for cancer patients and their families for more than three decades.

Even at the saddest of times, it can raise spirits and offer unrivalled support and medical care. We lost Karen...but made so many friends at hospice

WHEN Iain Borland recalls the final weeks of his wife Karen's life, he smiles.

It is for the fondness and gratitude he feels towards the staff and volunteers at the Marie Cure Hospice. It is where he encountered what he refers to as a "different breed of people.

He says: "Until then, I had never met people like that."

Karen, who spent the final 11 weeks of her life in the hospice, died last July after suffering for five years from metastatic paraganglioma, a rare cancer that originates in the inner ear and eventually spreads to the bones.

As the mother of two children, Nicole, now 14, and Jenna, 9, Karen's death hit the Maryhill family hard.

They all drew enormous comfort, however, from the exceptional care Karen received during her stay.

Karen's father Alex and her sister Lynda are equally effusive about the high standard of care afforded her.

"They helped maintain her dignity," says Lynda.

"Karen was always glamorous and the staff made sure she looked good," recalls Iain. "They would straighten her hair and paint her fingernails. They went that extra mile - and then some."

To watch Karen pass away with dignity meant the world to the family she left behind.

That is why they are supporting our campaign to help build a new Marie Curie hospice for Glasgow.

Iain said: "I want people to know hospices are not the bad place they think. They are a very cheery place, as soon as you open the doors you hear the laughing."

Following several operation and courses of chemo and radium therapy, Karen lost all mobility early last year.

Alex admits it was particularly difficult time.

"She was bed-ridden and very afraid," he says. "It was upsetting to see. The hospital suggested she move to the hospice and she thought she would give it a try. They told Karen this is your home'."

Lynda adds: "For a woman in her 30s with two young children to look after it was awful, but the staff were so accommodating - they even allowed the children to stay on the ward most weekends. Visitors were never a burden.

"There was always loads of us visiting and Karen's room was always full of people.

"As Karen was getting worse they were explaining things to us, telling what we would see happening.

"The nurses really helped with the kids and would take them away and have a talk with them now and again. They could explains things in ways we couldn't."

In the final five weeks of Karen's life, Iain was her constant bedside companion, sleeping in an easy chair each night. He says: "It would have felt like an eternity if it was a regular hospital."

Lynda goes further in her praise. She says: "Karen would not have fought for so long if she was not in the hospice."

Iain says he will never forget the dedication and care Karen - and the rest of the family - received during her stay. Even though it is nine months since Karen died, Iain still sends flowers to the hospice staff.

He says: "It keeps Karen's memory alive."

The Marie Curie Hospice at Stobhill Hospital has touched the lives of thousands of families affected by cancer and other terminal illnesses since it opened its doors in 1976.

Caring for everyone from aged 18 and upward, the hospice specialises in palliative care with its 35 in-patient beds, an out-patient service, a specialist nurse clinic, complementary therapy service and home care programme.

Despite the first class care for around 3400 patients each year, the building is more than 30 years old and modern facilities are desperately needed.

Which is why the Evening Times is launching The Big Build to help build a new Marie Curie hospice for Glasgow.

We are calling on everyone to get behind our campaign to give Glasgow the state-of-the-art hospice it deserves.

If the current level of expert care is to be maintained, a new hospice is urgently needed.

The problems in the existing building are now showing: windows are draughty, there is a lack of private toilets and limited outside access for patients.

Those limitations are affecting the patients' comfort, privacy and the standard of care they receive.

Facilities are frustratingly limited. There are no en-suite bathrooms and there is not enough accommodation for visiting families.

The hospice also lacks piped oxygen, a standard facility in any modern health care setting. It means nurses have to pull heavy, cumbersome oxygen cylinders around the hospice to those in need. It is hardly a snapshot of a 21st century healthcare facility.

Palliative care at this level, however, does not come cheap. The cost of building a state-of-the-art hospice, which is due to open in 2009, is £16million.

A small army of fundraisers has already raised around £8m.

Dr Jim Adam, medical director at the Marie Curie Hospice, believes building a new facility is the only forward.

He said: "It has become increasingly expensive to maintain this hospice. We have looked at alternatives, such as refurbishment, and it is not cost-effective.

"The hospice is a terrific facility and we want it to be up to the standards patients expect.

"A new hospice will allow more choice if a patient wants a single room or to be in a multi-occupancy room. That choice will also allow us to use the beds more effectively.

"It will allow people to get fresh air because all beds in the new hospice will have access to the outside. Fresh air can be terrific and can sometimes be better than a lot of medicines."

As patients and their families will agree, to transfer this extremely high level of care to a more suitable facility would be a dream come true.

Dr Adam added: "This building is like a car with a very good engine; the engine is still there, but the fabric is wearing thin and that is what will be replaced. In turn, that will make the engine work a lot better."

Later this week, we'll tell you how YOU can help our apppeal so we can all dig deep for The Big Build and give Glasgow the new hospice it deserves.