When Yvonne Peet lost her mother last year, she also lost her best mate!
She was that close to Julia Brown who died at our hospice, aged 87.
Yvonne ran the Manchester half marathon on 9th October 2022, raising more than £700 for us as a way of thanking us for caring for her mum.
Her donation is going towards our £2m public appeal to build our new hospice next to our current site in Heald Green, close to where Julia lived.
Yvonne said: “St Ann’s showed such compassion not just for my mum, but also myself as I struggled to come to terms with losing my best mate.”
“We used to go shopping every weekend it was either the garden centre, where she indulged most of her time, since she loved spending time there choosing new trees/shrubs or flowers to plant in her garden or on other days when the weather was bad we used to go clothes shopping together but at the end of each trip whether it be the garden centre or clothes shopping, we would finish off at her favourite eating place!
She was so grateful for the little things in life and she loved her trips out with me and that’s what makes it so heart-breaking now she’s not here!
She was always there by my side in the car and now she’s gone – there’s not a moment each day when I look at the empty seat at the side of me and hear the songs that used to play when she was with me that I don’t think of her and wish I could relive those moments again and again and I can tell her just how much she meant to me.”
“From the time she went into the hospice to the day she took her last breath the attention and care she received was incredible. She was treated with the utmost dignity and nothing was ever too much for the staff even when she was at her lowest point they still managed to make her smile just the simplest thing like moving a hanging basket full of her favourite flowers that was hanging in the hospice grounds to a position where she could see them from her bed.
Julia spent eight years of her life caring for her husband John who had suffered a stroke in 2012 and lost most of his mobility shortly after being diagnosed with bladder cancer which was eventually the cause of his death in August 2020. Just over a year later in December 2021 she received the devastating news that she had secondary bone cancer – a devastating shock to both herself and her daughter Yvonne! She didn’t know how long she had but made it clear to her daughter Yvonne that she wanted to spend her final days at St Ann’s, like her late mother Dorothy Clarke who sadly passed away at St Ann’s in 1994.
Yvonne said: “I didn’t want mum to spend her last days in a hospital and was relieved when she was given a place at St Ann’s since I felt that my mum’s last wishes had been fulfilled.”
“I did the run in mum’s memory and to help St Ann’s build the new hospice, so more in the community can also experience good end-of-life care like she did.
“The hospice also gives respite care for carers, allowing them to recuperate and have time to themselves.
“I know from experience how important it is for carers trying to juggle working nine to five and caring for a beloved family member to feel they have a support line such as St Ann’s.”
* To sponsor Yvonne visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Yvonne-Peet5
