Rugby hospice hub offers warmth, care and support for people with life-limited conditions and their carers

MP Mark Pawsey visited a new hub in Rugby that brings help and support to patients and their carers.

He was a guest at Rugby Myton Support Hub, based on the grounds of the Hospital of St Cross.

Rugby Myton Support Hub offers outpatient support for anyone aged 18+ with a life-limiting illness, along with their carers.

The hub, in Barby Road, also provides emotional and physical support.

Mark was also able to hear from two of the charity’s Myton at Home nurses, Faye Sawko and Nicola Hughes, about the challenges the charity faced during the coronavirus pandemic and the ways in which their support had to change during lockdown.

He was also able to speak to them about the holistic help Myton provides not just to individual patients, but also to their families.

This can mean something as simple as offering respite care to enable a carer to take a break, or as significant as providing counselling for bereaved family members.

The Rugby MP said: “The work of Myton and their incredible team is absolutely invaluable for people at one of the hardest times of their life. What was extremely clear to me was the compassion and determination to help make the final days and weeks of people’s lives as comfortable as possible.

"The support which Myton offers goes much further than I realised ahead of my visit, with help available beyond the end-of-life care for family members.”

Rugby Myton at Home nurses provide help at home for those in their final few weeks of life.

Mark was told about how Myton support patients in their own homes, generally after referrals from their GPs, district nurses or from the community specialist palliative care team.

Also at the Rugby Myton Support Hub was Ruth Freeman, Chief Executive of The Myton Hospices, who spoke to Mark about the importance of fundraising for the charity, especially after the challenges of the pandemic.

Ruth was joined by Tracey Evans, manager of the Rugby hub, who showed Mark the facilities available for patients including physiotherapy support, counselling and the growing number of activity and support sessions which Myton offers in Rugby.

Mark added: “Myton are only able to offer this help thanks to the generous support of local residents and the importance of both raising funds and raising awareness of Myton’s work.

“I know that although the pandemic disrupted their ability to fundraise, they have returned to holding events and it was great to hear from Ruth, Tracey and the team how much they appreciate the fundraising of Rugby residents.”

Ruth said: “It was great to have the opportunity to show Mark our new hub and to talk to him about the services we offer for the people of Rugby.

"We want to ensure that everyone who needs our services is able to access them and we want to reach out to people earlier in their illness. We are not only about end-of-life care, often people who have a terminal illness have a lot of living left to do and we want to support them to have the best possible quality of life, for as long as possible. We would welcome people to drop into the hub or visit our website to find out more about how we can support them.”

For more information, visit www.mytonhospice.org/hub