The Dr Karen Groves Legacy Development Fund
Honouring the Past, Grateful for the Present and Hopeful for the Future….
For over 30 years, #teamqueenscourt have been providing exceptional palliative care for people across West Lancashire, Formby and Southport, when they need us the most. Just as when Queenscourt began, over 30 years ago, when there were no real palliative care services in this area, we still need to try fill the gaps that exist for those who need us and we strive to do this in the best way possible, with the resources that we have available.
I hope that you will consider supporting the fund to which I am delighted to give my name, so that with your support #teamqueenscourt can continue to care for future generations in whatever way is needed, and in whatever circumstances exist, at that time, for each individual person and for the communities who care for them.
Perhaps you want to use the opportunity to say thank you for care or education or professional support, perhaps you want to use it to remember or to celebrate, perhaps you want to ‘give as you earn’ with a small but regular donation, perhaps you just want to be grateful for life, health, wellbeing, good fortune.
So thank you for all you do, have done, and will continue to do, in whatever way, on behalf of those who can never thank you themselves.
Yours Sincerely,
Karen
Dr Karen Groves MBE
Founder of Queenscourt Hospice
The Story so Far
Caring for very distressed patients with far advanced cancer and non-cancer illness, whose symptoms were poorly controlled and for whom communication had been less than helpful, faced me in my very first job as a young doctor. It was the helplessness I felt that spurred me on to find out what would make a difference in these situations and how I could learn how I, and the teams with whom I worked, could do things better.
My nurse sister, Sarah, was discovering similar unresolved distress in the areas in which she worked, and whilst I was working as a GP in the Southport area, we travelled together, with the naivety of youth, to seek advice from Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement in London.
On our return we were fortunate enough to gain support from family and friends, and inspired by our research and ongoing learning in this area, in 1984 a small group of like-minded people recognised the need for, and began to fundraise for the creation of, a hospice in our area. After much hard work in gaining new supporters and raising funds, planning permission for Queenscourt Hospice was granted in December 1988.
Milestones along the way:
Mayor Cllr Maureen Fearn cut the first turf on March 14th, 1990 and planted a copper beech tree which still grows to the left of the entrance to what is now the Terence Burgess Education Centre. The Hospice building was handed over on March 1st, 1991 and the next two months were spent fitting it out.
Adapting and changing to meet the needs of the recent Coronavirus outbreak ensured that we continued to care for patients throughout the pandemic. This meant that we expanded our care further into the community and hospital with our care services.
It was always Queenscourt’s intention, not only to care for those facing life-limiting illness and those important to them, but to support and educate health and social care professionals in the principles and practice of palliative and end of life care. In 2001, we were able to open an education facility that now bears the name of Terence Burgess, former surgeon to Southport and Ormskirk District General Hospital and the first Chairman of the Queenscourt Hospice Trustees.
This fantastic facility enables us to share our specialist palliative care knowledge with as many health and social care professionals as possible, all with the aim of ensuring that local people with life-limiting illnesses receive the best care possible, wherever they happen to be. We also work in partnership with Edge Hill University to deliver postgraduate academic courses and educate their health students, as well as those from Liverpool University.
We hope that Queenscourt will continue to serve the people of West Lancashire, Southport & Formby, those important to them, and their health and social care professionals for many years to come.
By making a donation, YOU will help Dr Groves to ensure that Queenscourt continues to support future generations, as part of her legacy.
EVERY donation makes a difference.
