Funded by East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals’ Charity, the Butterfly Volunteer Service at Lister Hospital in Stevenage provides an invaluable service to patients at the end of their life.
The Butterfly volunteers are specially trained to support dying patients and those close to them. They will be there with patients if their loved ones can’t be there, providing comfort and compassion at a difficult time.
The volunteers will help make a patient comfortable and will sit and read to the patient, play their favourite music or just chat. The volunteers will be there with a patient to ensure they are not alone if their family needs a break.
One relative said: “My sister died in the Lister Hospital. The woman from Butterfly Service was so kind to her, reading her a poem, talking to her and touching her. The woman helped me too, in this most distressing time. Every hospital should have this service.”
Angela Fenn, the Butterfly Service Coordinator, said: “Every patient in our care is treated with respect, care and compassion. We are guided by the words of Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement, who said: ‘You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life.’”
