Our volunteer complementary therapist, Peter, has the magic touch!

I've always had a relationship with St Ann's Hospice and it seemed like a natural fit when I finished at The Christie to come and do some volunteer work because I've always enjoyed being a visitor. My co-author on two books, with another to be published later this year, is Ann Carter who was CT co-ordinator here and whom I worked alongside. Tina Dennett is now the permanent therapist in the Heald Green hospice, and I knew her too from when she worked at The Christie. There's a great team at St Ann's and the staff are very welcoming and open to the work. Patients move between St Ann's and The Christie and since I started in November I've seen so many who've recognised me. I have also had close friends who've been cared for there so I knew St Ann's reasonably well. It's so rewarding to continue to provide therapies to patients in my retirement and in such a caring environment. It's a real honour and a privilege to provide interventions that you've grown and to offer those skills to patients and so make a difference. The on-going research will also help with funding streams, though the reality is the NHS won't fund a swathe of CTs, so that's where the voluntary and charity sectors play such a vital role. Volunteers are a core element of the work here and for me it's giving something back. Some posts are funded and the aim is to grow the service, so my message is if someone can help in some way then please get in touch. Helping carers as well as patients is key. That carer has been by the bedside and seen a person through treatments, possibly with long-term conditions, and that places a burden on them. I've also always been keen on integrating therapies safely. It's not like sports massage, where the person is well and the focus is on muscular work. Here we need to be gentle and adapt skills to individual patients and the context you're working within. Dr Peter Mackereth

We’re so grateful to all of our amazing team of volunteers, who help out with the complementary therapies for our patients.  We couldn’t offer the range of services to the number of patients we do without them, and we’re enormously grateful.  They’re part of a huge army of more than 700 volunteers who give their time so selflessly across all of our hospice sites and shops – a huge thank you to all of them on behalf of our patients, families and staff here at St Ann’s. Emma Barclay, Team leader