Staff and volunteers Archives - Page 4 of 10

Volunteers’ Week 2023

June 7, 2023 | 9:10pm

Volunteers’ Week runs 1st-7th June, and this annual celebration is a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution volunteers make to our communities.

St Ann’s Hospice would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing volunteers who support us in so many ways. We simply could not continue to provide our care without their help and we are extremely grateful to each and every one of them for their support.

We’re shining a spotlight on just a few of our team of incredible volunteers to celebrate them this Volunteers’ Week.

My favourite thing about volunteering is seeing the variety of items people donate – it’s really interesting. I would recommend volunteering at St Ann’s to anyone, and I have done! My husband is going to start at the shop as well.

Sheena, Volunteer, Distribution Centre

At the time I signed up I was suffering from chronic fatigue and needed purpose. I wanted to give something back to the community.

Tracey, Volunteer, Distribution Centre

Read Sheena & Tracey’s story here.

I volunteer to help the hospice and also increase my knowledge and learn about eBay, so it’s two-fold. I would really recommend volunteering to meet people. It’s better than staying in! Plus you get the knowledge and new skills – you might become an eBay millionaire through learning at St Ann’s!

Jeff, Volunteer, Online Sales Team

Read Jeff’s story here.

Early retirement has given me the time and opportunity to volunteer, including supporting the Fundraising Team in their ongoing Build It Together campaign, as well as being a volunteer driver for the Being You Centre. I hope that supportive role can further evolve as building works for the new hospice begin, allowing me to share in the St Ann’s journey at this most exciting time.

Graham, Volunteer

Read Graham’s story here.

I needed to do something moving forward and decided to give back to St Ann’s after they cared for my mum. I’d never worked in a shop before, but I like meeting people, talking to them and having a joke with them. I get on with the team and get a real reward out of doing it.

Ian, Volunteer, Sale shop

Could you volunteer at St Ann’s?

You’ll be challenged, inspired, and empowered to help us achieve our purpose and to play your part in making a difference.

We’re currently looking for volunteers across the organisation in our shops, Online Sales Team, Fundraising Team and in our hospices. Find out more here.

Volunteering at St Ann’s

Find out more information about all of our current volunteering opportunities.

Find out more

Fiona wins bronze award at the British Journal of Nursing Awards

July 1, 2022 | 11:43am

Fiona, a lymphoedema specialist at St Ann’s Hospice, collected a bronze award at the British Journal of Nursing Awards 2022.

The honour took her by surprise as she was even unaware she had been nominated and she is not actually a nurse, her prize coming in the Chronic Oedema Nurse of the Year category.

Fiona, who is also affiliated to Macmillan in her role as a palliative care specialist, has treated patients at Heald Green and Little Hulton in nine years at St Ann’s.

I feel slightly embarrassed by the award, but it’s nice to get the recognition for our lymphoedema work and, if anything, it highlights how important our services are.

I love my job and making a difference to people who might have been searching for treatments over a long time to help them manage their condition. It’s an under-staffed and under-resourced service in this country.

More people than you think suffer from lymphoedema, which can lead to other problems like wounds, infections and sepsis.

“People with cancer can experience lymphoedema, but it can also be congenital or occur due to other conditions such as vascular problems and cellulitis.

It limits what people can do in their life. One lady I treated recently had swollen ankles and couldn’t get her shoes back on after not going outdoors for two years in the pandemic. After three weeks of treatment, she was able to send us a photo of her at her local restaurant.
People are grateful there’s a service out there which helps them get a better quality of life.

Fiona Sanderson

Lymphoedema is a swelling caused by an impaired lymphatic system and affects any part of the body. Most common areas are arms or legs, but the head, neck, breast, abdomen and genital area can also be affected. It is estimated that lymphoedema affects between 263,000-422,000 people in the UK

Support for you

When you’re living with a life-limiting illness, you can experience physical, psychological, emotional or social issues which mean that you don’t quite feel like you.

The Being You Centre at St Ann’s is here to help you get back to feeling like yourself again.

Find out about The Being You Centre

Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2022

May 31, 2022 | 3:55pm

So many people across Greater Manchester selflessly give their time to help others. I’m proud to be part of a community – and city – that has so many individuals who are passionate about making a difference.

This week, as the UK marks Volunteers’ Week (1 – 7 June), I’d like to thank and celebrate the hundreds of volunteers who support St Ann’s Hospice.

We have more than 600 volunteers who share their expertise, time and skills, supporting us in so many different ways.

From our hospice shops and fundraising events and activities, to running our cafés and supporting clinical staff on our wards, we’ve benefitted from the generosity of volunteers for so many years.

They give many thousands of hours between them each year, and some have been volunteering for an incredible 50 years or more. We simply couldn’t carry on providing our specialist palliative and end of life care without their support.

We’re hugely grateful and I’d like to say a big thank you to each and every one of them. I’d also like to thank all of the other people across our fantastic city who selflessly volunteer their time to help others too.

You’re all amazing. Thank you.

Happy birthday to us!

May 17, 2022 | 7:38am

Rachel McMillan sat in the hospice gardenholding a metal forget-me-not

After such an amazingly busy 50^th anniversary year in 2021, it would have been easy to think that as we celebrate our 51^st birthday, things would be quieter and that the hospice would have much less going on. But, I’m excited and pleased to say that couldn’t be further from the truth…

It’s right that anniversaries are a time to stop briefly and take stock. They are a great opportunity to look back and reflect on what’s gone well – the memories that have been created, and everything that has been achieved.

Whilst the last twelve months certainly brought plenty of challenges as we continued to care and support people during the pandemic, I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that we’ve also carried on moving forward at pace.

Teams across the hospice have continued to innovate and improve services, being brave and bold and reaching out to new communities who have historically found it harder to access palliative and end of life care.

Collaborations have been key, whether that’s staff and volunteers working hard across teams to ensure the very best, compassionate care for patients; local healthcare professionals who have worked with us to improve that care; or funders and supporters who have enabled our work to happen. It’s been an amazing year and most importantly our patients and those closest to them have remained at the heart of everything we’ve done.

Ensuring patients remain at the centre of our work is something which is driving our work in 2022 and beyond too.

Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive

As well as the evolution of our services, we have also been carrying out work to ensure our Little Hulton hospice remains fit for the future needs of patients too. We are also heading into the next half a century of care with an exciting project to build a brand new hospice in Heald Green. The new site will be on land adjacent to our current hospice there, and is being developed as our old building is no longer fit for purpose – parts are more than 150 years old and not conducive to modern hospice care.

It’s ambitious, but it’s absolutely necessary. If we don’t do this urgently, we’re in danger of having to close or reduce services in the near future. The project has been carefully planned to sit alongside our recently innovated services and wide range of community and outreach provisions, which will together mean we are able to remain an organisation of choice for people from across Greater Manchester and parts of Cheshire.

We’ll be sharing more on this exciting project in the next few months, so please watch this space.

Huge, huge, thanks for all your support over the last year, and for joining us on this exciting journey as we start the next phase of St Ann’s history.

Over the last 51 years something which has remained true is that we couldn’t do what we do without the community that supports us. Thank you so much for everything you’ve helped us achieve – and continue to help us do for our patients and their families, now and in the future too.

Want to find out more about our exciting plans for the future?

Read all about our ambitious project to create a new hospice for local people now.

Find out more now

A big thank you to our nurses for International Nurses Day!

May 10, 2022 | 9:14pm

Thanks to all of the incredible hospice nurses who chose to work at St Ann’s Hospice, for their hard work, commitment, expertise and compassion. On this day we celebrate the amazing contribution that our nurses make to the lives of so many patients and their families, and thank them for their contribution.
As a nurse, and Director of Clinical Services at St Ann’s Hospice, I am proud of our team, and to work in organisation which invests in nursing, their development, their well-being and their growth.

Emma Dixon, Director of Clinical Services

Denise Oldfield has her sights set on the Great Manchester Run Half Marathon to raise funds for St Ann’s Hospice

May 6, 2022 | 8:03pm

In the summer of 2019, the father of Denise’s former partner, Bill Waddington, was supported by the nursing staff at St Ann’s Hospice in Heald Green, after being diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. Denise happened to be helping out in the lottery department of the hospice at the same time and would visit Bill each day after work.

I witnessed first-hand how amazing the staff and nurses were during that period and how much they cared.

A keen road runner, Denise has been pounding the pavements for the last twenty years but never met the challenging heights of a 23km half marathon. Inspired by the work of the hospice and wanting to push herself further than ever before.

I have always had it in the back of my mind to do a half marathon. The longest distance I have run is 17km; from my house in Northenden to Quarry Bank Mill in Styal and back. I want to push myself a little bit further this time round for a great cause.

Talking about what gives her the motivation to take on the run, Denise said:

I guess like many people I had my preconceptions about hospices, however all these myths were dispelled on my frequent bed-side visits to Bill in Heald Green. There is a real camaraderie between staff, patients and families. Bill was treated with such dignity whilst being cared for at St Ann’s. The hospice is widely respected in and around Greater Manchester, Stockport but also around the world. It’s evident that everybody who works there, whether office-based, nursing staff, shop managers or volunteers, all share the same vision and passion.

St Ann’s provides care for thousands of people with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses every year from its hospice sites in Heald Green and Little Hulton, as well as via a range of community and outreach services. Specialist hospice staff support people from across Greater Manchester and parts of Cheshire right from the point of diagnosis of their illness, through treatment and beyond.

Thank you so much Denise for taking on this bold and brave challenge to support St Ann’s. The Great Manchester Run has been such an important fundraiser for the hospice for many years. We’re really grateful to anyone who joins Team St Ann’s – there’s an amazing atmosphere on the day, and every penny raised makes such a difference to the lives of local people. We can’t wait to see you there! Please sign up now and help support St Ann’s.

Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s Hospice

St Ann’s have a number of free charity places available for people wishing to run the epic 10km or half-marathon. The St Ann’s sixty in 60 challenge returns for the Great Manchester Run 2022, where the hospice challenge sixty runners to complete 10km in 60 minutes. Team members are granted free entry into the run and asked to raise a minimum of £200 in sponsorship. Runners can decide to take on the challenge or run at their own pace and can join social meet ups and training events to help them prepare for the challenge.

To sponsor Denise visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/denise-oldfield

Sign up for a free St Ann’s charity place today!!

Call 0161 498 3631 or

Click Here!

Why I love my job – Jenny

April 29, 2022 | 8:45am

“My role includes buying new goods to sell in our high street shops and putting together seasonal catalogues to promote stock.

“I’m based in our Distribution Centre in Reddish, where I manage the warehouse day-to-day and manage and promote our drive-thru donation days and Distribution Centre sales. I also take donations and sort them for the shops and sale days.

“I’ve worked in charity retail for 20 years, including buying for national charities, and I’ve been at St Ann’s for four years.

One of the things I love most about my job is knowing that every penny I help raise goes to support the hospice.

“My favourite part of the job is putting together the Christmas card catalogue and choosing the range of cards.

“I love meeting people at the drive-thru donation days and Distribution Centre sales. People are very generous and want to support St Ann’s.”

We’re looking for volunteers for our shops

Do you have time to spare to help out in our shops? Click the button below to sign up.

Click here

5 minutes with… Damian, Advanced Clinical Practitioner

April 29, 2022 | 8:30am

Damian with his bike that he rides to work outside the hospice front entrance

What’s an Advance Clinical Practitioner?

“Advance Clinical Practitioner (ACPs) is a new role for the hospice. I’m currently in the second year of the MSc Clinical Practice Degree Apprenticeship at Manchester Metropolitan University, a programme of practice-based learning supported by the university and the hospice team.”

What does your role involve?

“We work alongside the medical, nursing, management and other multidisciplinary teams. The role incorporates the four pillars of advanced practice; clinical, education, research and leadership.

“Clinical: assessing and supporting patients on the ward. My role embraces autonomous decision making, non-medical prescribing and collaborative working to enhance a patient’s journey from admission to discharge and beyond.

“Education: being a role model, a mentor, a coach and providing both informal ad formal education to all members of the hospice team.

“Leadership: demonstrating positive behaviours which impact team dynamics. We provide support and guidance to the wider team, and work alongside senior management to uphold the organisational values and respond to strategic needs.

“Research: involvement with audit, quality improvement and our clinical practice is evidence-based.”

What do you love most about your job?

Having 17 years in palliative care, I still take great pleasure working with patients and making a difference. I have also enjoyed the learning and education part of the role.

What’s your proudest achievement so far? 

“I struggle with my educational needs due to having dyslexia. I am very proud that I have been able to manage my study at Masters level and to achieve good grades in the modules I have completed.

“My steepest learning curve has been in the leadership aspects of the role. I am a complete novice with quality improvement and I am learning valuable knowledge and skills in this area.”

What’s surprised you most about St Ann’s?

“Having always worked for the NHS throughout my career, this was my first time working for a charity. It surprised me how innovative and forward-thinking the hospice is. I have also been surprised at the level of support and kindness shown to me during my transition from the Community Specialist Palliative Care Team to this new role.”

Join #TeamStAnns

If you’d like to join our passionate and committed family, join #TeamStAnns as a volunteer, applying for a job or taking on your next fundraising challenge.