St Luke’s Hospice (Harrow and Brent), has been able to help a Harrow resident overcome a major hurdle by teaming up with Yorkshire-based Acorn Stairlifts. Working collaboratively with the Harrow Community Palliative Care team (London North West University Healthcare Trust), the Fundraising team at St Luke’s reached out to Acorn Stairlifts who reacted quickly to the plea.
At just 26, Trixie – was diagnosed with an advanced and spreading form of cancer which has caused extensive damage to her lungs. Before the diagnosis Trixie was living independently and enjoying her job, but declining health forced her to move back home with her parents, who have given up work to care for her. However Trixie’s cancer left her extremely breathless and climbing the stairs in her home was impossible.
The Hospice, well known for its In-Patient Unit and day care centre, provides two thirds of its care to people in the comfort of their own homes. On hearing Trixie’s story, Kerry Wloskowicz, a Nurse Specialist from the Harrow Community Palliative Care team based at St Luke’s Hospice, was keen to help.
Kerry explained: “Trixie finds it a huge challenge to go up and down stairs, leaving her restricted upstairs. Like anyone else, she wanted to be able to sit downstairs with her family and not be confined to her room where she was feeling frustrated and isolated.”
“A stairlift was the obvious solution but Trixie’s family didn’t have the funds to get one installed.”
Kerry went on to discuss the options with the Corporate Fundraising team at St Luke’s who in turn reached out to Acorn. Staff at Acorn were quick to positively respond and offered to immediately install one of their stairlifts free of charge.
Acorn’s Gareth Deegan said: “As a company we already have a partnership with a national hospice, installing stairlifts so people cared for by their hospices can remain living at home for as long as possible. We were more than happy to work with St Luke’s on a similar basis so Trixie can enjoy a better life at home with her parents and go up and down the stairs whenever she likes.”
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