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Melanie Stone

Retirement of Prof. Paul Dodson and the appointment of Melville Kendal

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Oakhaven Hospice has announced the appointment of Melville (Mel) Kendal as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees

Mel will bring extensive experience and expertise to the title having served on the trustee Boards of a number of Charities and was Treasurer of Oakhaven Hospice for eight years before being appointed Chairman. He is a former Leader and Chairman of New Forest District Council and a former Deputy Leader and Chairman of Hampshire County Council.

He has served in various Executive Member functions In Hampshire’s Cabinet over 25 years ,most recently overseeing Hampshire’s capital and revenue expenditure for Economic Development and is credited with initiating the Operation Resilience project to rebuild many of Hampshire’s ailing roads. Before that as Environment lead member he pioneered the 20-is-Plenty campaign to reduce speeds outside schools, and the Choose-30 campaign to limit speeds in participating villages to 30mph. For this, he received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award on behalf of Hampshire County Council.

Mel led on the county’s Energy strategy to make Hampshire less reliant on carbon energy, replacing streetlights with modern energy saving lamps, promoting electric vehicles, and charging points, having authored a paper for the Association of European Regions on the need for uniformity of vehicle charging points and payment methods.

Mel continues to advise private clients in his consultancy business.

Our outgoing Chairman, Prof. Paul Dodson, had a farewell message to share: "It has been a privilege to be involved with Oakhaven for the last eight years, putting patients and families at the forefront of all the continued development of the services. As a Clinician I have been all too aware of the importance of palliative care services and the truly needed care and support their expertise provides to not only patients and families at the end of life but to the wider community. It requires significant expertise in so many areas to continue these services and I pay tribute to the many many volunteers and dedicated staff. My thanks to the great support from the trustees and my very best wishes to the new chairman Mel Kendal in whose very capable hands Oakhaven will continue to thrive."

The Leon Crouch Foundation donates £850,000 to Oakhaven Hospice.

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We are honoured that the daughters of Leon Crouch, Hannah Leonardi, Lara Crouch and Louise Roles have given a donation of £550,000 from The Leon Crouch Foundation to support the work of the Hospice. Continuing the unwavering support shown by their father throughout his lifetime.

Leon’s charitable work was well known and as Hannah Leonardi says ‘Even in death Leon was thinking about how he could continue to help the town that he grew up in and loved.’

‘Our father was a Patron of Oakhaven Hospice, which always remained a cause very close to his heart, therefore it was a fitting place for him to spend his last few days. It gives my sisters, Lara, Louise and I, great pleasure to make a donation to Oakhaven Hospice of £550,000 from the Leon Crouch Foundation so that Oakhaven may continue to touch the lives of so many local people. We feel incredibly proud of our Father’s commitment to helping others beyond his lifetime’

Andrew Ryde, Chief Executive said ‘We are incredibly grateful to Leon for his contribution to the Hospice, this generous donation will assist us with the expansion of our services. This funding will help towards increasing our bedded provision to ensure that we can continue to meet the need of the community for end-of-life support here at the hospice. As well as helping to develop a dedicated education facility to support carers and healthcare professionals to provide the best level of end-of-life care for all.’

Since this donation the family have pledged to a further donation of £300,000 to meet the gap in funding. Thereby allowing this expansion to take place.

Oakhaven Trustee, Dr David Butler, thanked as he retires

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Dr David Butler recently stepped down from the Board of Trustees after being a member since July 2013. Professor Paul Dodson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees presented David with a leaving gift on behalf of the Board and thanked him for his 9 years of service as a Trustee.
David worked with the team at Oakhaven on the Clinical Governance Group for many years and latterly as a Locum Consultant from late 2011 to 2014.
David’s expertise in palliative care has been of great value to the Board and we will miss his wisdom and friendship.
We wish David every happiness in his retirement.

 

 

Leon’s legacy lives on, with generous bequest of £50,000 to Oakhaven

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Leon Crouch, a lifelong supporter of Oakhaven Hospice, sadly lost his life following a short battle with cancer in September 2019 surrounded by his loving family. A private, gentle man, Leon supported the Hospice in many ways but most publicly as the sponsor of our Oakhaven Golf Day, competing on the day for the Fullers Cup.

Chief Executive Andrew Ryde said ‘Leon was deeply committed to the Hospice and has made a lasting impact on Oakhaven. We are so grateful that he included a gift in his will, his legacy will make a very real difference to those we care for both here in the hospice and out in homes across our community.’

Leon’s daughters Hannah Leonardi, Lara Crouch and Louise Rolls presented the cheque to Oakhaven in November at a special event where they were presented with an engraved leaf by Chairman of The Board of Trustees, Professor Paul Dodson and Patron, The Honourable Mary Montagu-Scott DL in honour their father’s contribution to the Hospice. Hannah Leonardi said ‘we are thrilled to be able to honour our fathers wishes and present Oakhaven with his legacy, which we hope will help others in the community who are in need of the specialist care that Oakhaven provides. We as a family are incredibly thankful for everything the Hospice did to support us and our beloved father’

1 in 4 of the individuals we support are cared for are because of gifts in wills. By making a gift in a will, you are committing to help in the future, to help local people, their families and loved ones who will need Oakhaven in years to come. If you feel this is something you are able to do please visit https://www.oakhavenhospice.co.uk/legacy/

The Honourable Mary Montagu-Scott joins Oakhaven as Patron.

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The Honourable Mary Montagu-Scott DL became Patron of Oakhaven Hospice on 30 November 2021 and takes over from Lady Mary Fagan LG DCVO who has served in this role since the hospice’s early days. The appointment comes as Oakhaven commences the celebration of 30 years of providing specialist end of life care to those in the community it serves.

During Lady Mary Fagan’s patronage Oakhaven has grown substantially, evolving its services with community teams reaching out to support individuals within their own homes as well as our wellbeing services which offer support and advice to those affected by illness.

Andrew Ryde, Oakhaven’s Chief Executive says “we are so grateful for the years of support Lady Mary Fagan LG DCVO has given to Oakhaven and for suggesting Mary Montagu-Scott as her successor. I would like to express the gratitude of everyone at Oakhaven for the many years of support Lady Mary has given to the hospice.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the hospice, it is fitting the baton will be passed on to such a recognisable personality in the community. Mary Montagu-Scott brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the role. As a well known figure in the region and champion of so many charitable causes, Oakhaven is delighted to have her accept such an important position.

As the baton is passed Lady Mary Fagan says “I cannot imagine anyone better than Mary Montagu-Scott to take over the reins, I have known her for many years and was delighted to suggest her for the role and even more pleased when she accepted”Mary Montagu-Scott says: “I am delighted to accept this role at such an exciting time. Oakhaven is going from strength to strength in reaching people and their families across the New Forest, Waterside and Totton communities. I am excited to see where Oakhaven goes next to help more people in need of care. Anything I can do to help will be an honour”

Nurses needed to expand service

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Oakhaven Hospice is launching an urgent recruitment campaign for more nurses to expand its service.

The priority is community nurses and night nurses but the Hospice, in Lower Pennington Lane, Lymington, is also looking for extra nurses who can help cover both day- and night-shifts as well as potentially work both within community and in-patient teams.

The campaign will include social media appeals and billboards in Hampshire and Dorset as well as traditional recruitment advertising.

Posters and messages used in the campaign are inspired by the experiences of current nurses at the Hospice and how they describe working there.

Lucy Smith, Director of Patient Services, said: “More people in our New Forest catchment area need our help and we are recruiting additional nursing staff to make sure we can be there for patients, their families and their carers when they need us most.

“We have now permanently increased our number of beds from eight to ten.  This latest recruitment drive will enable us to offer up to four more beds as we did during lockdown to support the NHS, bringing the total to 14.”

Lucy added: “For the first time, we are also introducing the concept of ‘virtual beds’. This means that the extra capacity we are creating includes additional rooms within the Hospice, but it can also be care that we provide in people’s own homes or elsewhere.

“The over-riding aim is to provide the best quality of care for patients in the best place for them while also reducing pressure on hospital beds.”

Oakhaven Hospice, which serves most of the New Forest including Totton and the Waterside, employs over 20 nurses along with doctors and other specialist staff.  The Hospice also supports patients and their families in their own homes and provides a range of wellbeing and complementary therapy support.