Malcolm Fryer Shares His Life-long Love of Painting with #teamqueenscourt

Community | 21 December 2022

Avid artist Malcolm Fryer, who has received support from a variety of Queenscourt’s services, spoke to two of our medical students, Tara Desert and Natasha Goss, about his life as a painter.

What he revealed during their conversation was that with the care and support of #teamqueenscourt, he has been able to maintain his creativity, even teaching one of his Queenscourt at Home nurses how to paint!

Malcolm, 84, was born in Manchester and spent his life and career as an artist – teaching in secondary schools, then as a lecturer at Blackpool School of Arts, before becoming Director of an art school based in Scotland.

He has two daughters, Katie and Juliet, whom he is very close to, and returned to Southport to live with Katie.

Malcolm, who has a life-limiting illness, got to know the Queenscourt at Home Nurses really well, when he was first being supported by the hospice whilst living at home with Katie. During this time, Malcolm took the opportunity to teach one of our nurses how to paint, a skill she was keen to learn.

She commented: “I was thrilled to be able to paint – I never thought I was an artistic person, but Malcolm helped me through and it brought him so much joy.”

Malcolm hopes that his paintings will be his legacy, stating: “I want my art to speak to folk.”

Malcolm recently became an In Patient on our ward and describes Queenscourt as ‘a wonderful place’. He added: “People often feel hopeless before they arrive, but the hospice gives people hope and shows you that there is always something to hold on to.

“Getting to know the hospice staff has helped me through my time here – I’ve made some tremendous connections.”

“My mother-in-law was also a patient at Queenscourt when it first opened. The positive experience I witnessed at the hospice, seeing the care and compassion she received right up until the end, made me more comfortable coming back as a patient myself.”

“Along the way there is always hope – we’re all artists – all we need to be taught is how to see.”