Alison’s Story

Alison Govan joined Wigan & Leigh Hospice 17 years ago after first visiting her brother-in-law who was staying at the Hospice. After working on the Inpatient Unit for several years, she joined the new Hospice in Your Home team, supporting patients and their families within the community. This is her story.

“I have always worked in nursing, and I was at Salford Royal for a long time focusing on acute neurology. But then my brother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumour and chose the Hospice as his preferred place of death. When I came to visit him, I would sit in his room and think this place is just amazing.

I had been nursing a long time, and I had got to that point where I thought, I can’t do this anymore. So, when I came to visit it was like ‘Wow, this is what I should be doing’.

The hospice team were so good with the whole family. The Inpatient Unit is fantastic. They looked after Michael and the family really well. He was young when he died, only 42, and he had young children. My nieces were allowed to stay as long as they wanted when he died, and we didn’t feel like we were rushed to leave until we felt ready.

After that I decided to join the NHS Bank, so I could wait for a permanent post to come up at the Hospice. Luckily, one did and I started working nights on Inpatient Unit for the next 6 years.”

Joining Hospice in Your Home

“I loved my time on the ward, but the Hospice was introducing a brand-new service called Hospice in Your Home and I thought, ‘should I apply and see what happens?’ and that’s what I did. I got the role and became a Senior Staff Nurse in 2014.

Being with the service since it started means I have seen it evolve, and for me it’s my perfect job.

I love palliative care, and I wouldn’t ever want to leave. I also really enjoy working in the community – so it’s like I have the best of both worlds.

I’ve been a Team Leader now for about 18 months or so. It’s an amazing job.

What I love about it is, you never know what you’re going to get. Every single day is different, there are some difficult days but the good always outweighs the bad.

We are really lucky in the sense that these families place their trust in us. We are strangers in their homes, and they trust us to look after their loved one with nobody else there, I think that is a massive thing.

It fluctuates, but we usually have around 50 patients at one time. We get referrals from Hospice Nurse Specialists, the Inpatient Unit, district nurses, community matrons, GPs and hospitals. It’s good, because it means we are more accessible to people, and they are more aware of what we do and the care we provide.

We are in the same office as the Hospice Nurse Specialist team, which is just fantastic, because a lot of our patients are the same as we cross over a lot. If we have a concern or anything, we can just walk over to that nurse’s desk and discuss that patient. There is a lot of support in our office and across the teams.

It’s hard for me to say what is my favourite part of the job because it is so diverse. Say we have a rapid discharge from hospital for end of life, our response time is really quick. We tend to get to patients within the first 24 hours of them coming home. If we don’t, it is because families have said it’s too soon, or they don’t know what they need yet. But the day after we get the referral, we will usually be out assessing.”

A Special Case

“A few years ago, we had a patient who had motor neurone disease. She was quite young, in her fifties. She couldn’t talk at all, so the visits were very complex. She would use a whiteboard to write things down, but as she got more poorly, she began to struggle to write.

My colleague Jane and I would take turns on these visits, and the patient really enjoyed them as it meant her husband could go out shopping or take a break. When I first met her she was quite distressed, and I soon figured out that it was because she had three grown up sons who she wanted to write letters for. She couldn’t ask her family because they would get upset.

We decided that on each of our visits, we would help the patient to write these letters. The Inpatient Unit printed some lovely stationary with flowers on and matching envelopes which we would take with us to see her. If she felt up for it, we would try abit of writing or if she wasn’t having a good day we would wait until the next visit. We left the decision completely up to her, for whenever she felt up to it.

It took a couple of months, but we wrote all four letters, and I kept them safe until she passed away. You could really tell that once the letters were finished, she was able to relax.

When the time came, I took the letters to her family. They were very sad but so grateful. They didn’t know she was planning to do anything like that.

It was heartbreaking, because in every letter she had really thought about what she wanted to say. They were all very personal and it took her a long time to write them, as she could only do a little bit at a time.

It was a big team effort from everybody, not just us but from the Inpatient Unit as well.

I was and still am really proud of the team for supporting the patient and helping to fulfil her wishes. If anyone ever said to me what is the best thing you’ve ever done, I think that would be it.”

Published July 2024

If you would like to join the Wigan & Leigh Hospice team, please see our current vacancies or contact HR@wlh.org.uk to express your interest.