NORTH KENT: Looking back at 25 years of EllenorLions Hospice

IT was from the personal experience of losing his parents which inspired Graham Perolls to launch a hospice.

In 1978 Graham returned from working in Sweden to look after his dying father who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Paralysed and needing 24-hour round-the-clock attention, Graham took his father to St Christopher’s Hospice in London, and was amazed by the transformation in his father’s condition.

Graham said: “In a couple of days it seemed like a miracle had taken place because in the last three months he had been lying flat on his back in pain.

“All of a sudden we went to visit him and he was in a wheelchair.

“We realised that with great pain management and people who cared, it can make the world of difference.

“He came home and lived another six months.

“The quality of his life was 100 per cent better than before.”

In 1984 Graham’s mother died unexpectedly in hospital from a brain haemorrhage and the overwhelming difference in care inspired him to act.

He said: “While my father had a good death my mother’s death was quite difficult.

“I realised the local hospital didn’t have any idea about how to care for a dying person and that was what made me realise I had to do something.”

Graham contacted the founder of St Christopher’s, Dame Cicely Saunders, about starting a hospice in Dartford.

He said: “She advised me not to build a hospice but to start with home care. She felt a hospice was not just a building but a concept of care and you could help a lot more people by working as a complementary service to family doctors and nurses. She said a building could come later, and that’s what happened.”

And so began the Ellenor Foundation in 1985, named after his parents Ellen and Norman, in a small office in Livingstone Hospital, Dartford.

Graham said: “I think the beginning of a project is always very exciting and it was a really strong grass roots movement started in our front room and gradually gathered pace with a lot of people coming forward to volunteer.

“I think everybody in the Dartford area who lost a relative from cancer knew what we were talking about and the need for a service.

“From the moment we launched it the response from the community was fantastic. That was the backbone of the organisation.”

The hospice, which was strictly a home care service, flourished and opened offices next door to the hospital and also in Bexley and Gravesend.

While the roots for the Ellenor Foundation were laid in the early 1980s, a group of fundraisers were also looking to open a hospice in Northfleet.

In 1983 they received a donation of £200,000 but it took them until 1992 to raise the required £1.5m to open the 10-bed Lions Hospice in Coldharbour Road.

The Ellenor Foundation and the Lions Hospice merged in 2007 and became the EllenorLions Hospice.

Graham stepped down as Ellenor chairman in 2004 to concentrate on Hospices of Hope, a charity he set up to bring hospice services to Romania following the 1989 revolution.

The Hospice Casa Sperantei opened in Brasov in 2003 and has become a beacon for palliative care across southeastern Europe.

A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ELLENORLIONS

1985 - Ellenor launches first ever hospice at home service, with one nurse caring for five patients.

1987 - Fundraising continues to raise £1.5million to build a hospice in Northfleet following an anonymous donation of £200,000 in 1983.

1989 - 24 hour on call, hospital support and bereavement care services all introduced. Now caring for 200 families.

1992 - After nine years of fundraising, the 10-bed Lions Hospice opens its doors to patients.

1994 - Ellenor establishes first children’s hospice at home service in the UK with one nurse caring for 15 seriously ill children.

1995 - Demand has grown to 572 adults and 55 children. Two extra beds are added to the Northfleet hospice.

1997 -.Opening of the Ellenor Centre in Dartford provides play therapy, family counselling and a base for the specialist teams of nurses.

1999 - Children’s services expanded to four specialist nurses providing care for 75 children every day.

2002 - Demand in services increases to 1,365 adults and 93 children.

2007 - The Ellenor Foundation and Lions Hospice merge to provide the community with a world leading, all encompassing hospice service.

2008 - Building work on a new wing at the hospice starts, adding three bedrooms for patients with complex care needs.

2010 - Silver Jubilee. Now caring for 2,500 patients annually.

For more information about EllenorLions visit ellenorlions.org