Oakhaven Neighbours
Hospice Neighbours is a free volunteer-led service available to Oakhaven Hospice patients and their families. Hospice Neighbours can offer companionship and lend a helping hand with everyday tasks that can become overwhelming when living with a life-limiting illness.
Do you have a couple of hours to spare to help someone do the shopping, take them for a coffee or maybe stay at home with them whilst their carer goes out to run an errand?
‘Being a Neighbour is incredibly rewarding. You will be giving something back to the community in a way that is hugely appreciated by Oakhaven patients and their families.’
If you would like to know more about the scheme and becoming an Oakhaven Neighbour, please email neighbours@oakhavenhospice.co.uk
One of our team describes what being a Hospice Neighbour means to him:
“Being an Oakhaven Neighbour has given me a sense of making a small contribution to our society - ‘giving something back’, if you will. It involves a regular weekly commitment which is not onerous at all (two to three hours) but which does not feel like a ‘commitment’ but rather becomes a welcome part of my regular routine. Without the need for committee meetings, minutes, fundraising and formalities it provides a direct and tangible way of helping.
"At the same time the Oakhaven Neighbours scheme provides great support through my team leader, the scheme’s Co-ordinator and comprehensive training programmes. In my case I was assigned to a gentleman who, together with his wife, became great friends over nearly two years of visiting. I felt that I became accepted as a small cog in the overarching support services provided by Oakhaven.
"Inevitably, whilst we shared many family stories and of course good times including a Toasted Teacakes Tour in the early months, we also shared many challenges. It is a measure of the privilege I was granted by this lovely family that I saw them at their best and at their most difficult times. My gentleman’s wife described me as his buddy when she introduced me to their close-knit family. It is a succinct way of summarising what being a Neighbour means to me and what it meant to him.”
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