Caring for our community for 50 years! 

Emotional support

Jean Gibbs was appointed our first Matron at our site in Little Hulton in 1979. She was passionate about creating the same warm and loving environment at our new site as she had felt in Heald Green. Hospice care was also growing and evolving at the time to meet the emotional needs of patients, relatives, friends and carers too.

In 1999, Jean shared her memories of working at St Ann’s for the 20th birthday of our Little Hulton Hospice. She went on to say:

Jean was instrumental in developing care for the whole person at our Little Hulton Hospice, ensuring that patients across our hospice sites received the same personalised care.

Creating community

Just like our leaflet above, from our archive explains, creative therapies like art and music bring our patients together to try new things and have fun.

In our 50th year, we now have creative therapists as part of our teams, and we even have an online social group for our Being You Centre patients. Our virtual group is led by some amazing volunteers, who help to bring people together who might be shielding or living alone and create a community where everyone can be themselves.

Our Being You Centre offers a range of services, which have since adapted to include virtual programmes, led by specialist therapists and nurses over a five to six week course.

Care for the whole person

Although our roots were as a Christian organisation, we’ve always been proud to support people from different
communities. Our first chaplaincy team included Rabbi E.S Rabinowitz and over the years, we’ve built relationships with local faith leaders to make sure that people from all faiths and none can feel at home at the hospice.

In the last decade, St Ann’s partnered with The Myriad Foundation, an Islamic charity in Manchester. Patients at the hospice could request a buddy to spend time with them, chatting, playing board games or watching TV together at times when they might not have as many visitors.