22 Dec 2018 Care

Christmas at Kirkwood - Katie’s Story

Christmas is a very special time of year for all families, but particularly for those receiving care at the end of life. Our teams at Kirkwood make sure to go the extra mile to ensure that our patients and their families have the best quality time together possible, and make special memories each Christmas.

Meet Katie. Katie has been working at Kirkwood for nearly two years and recently changed positions from Fundraising Assistant to Events Assistant. In her time at Kirkwood, Katie has met hundreds of families wanting to show their support and has witnessed first-hand a special memory made at Christmas. This is Katie’s story:

“Last year at Christmas, the clinical team came to fundraising to see if we could help them out. They had a patient on the In-Patient Unit that wanted to take his children to see Santa in his Grotto but unfortunately he wasn’t well enough to get out and get to one, so we decided to take the Grotto to him. I volunteered to be Santa’s elf. Santa and I went to see him and his children in his room, took them a present and had a chat with them. It was really nice; we took the Grotto experience to him.”

“After we’d seen the family in their room, we had a walk around the ward on the In-Patient Unit and saw some of the other patients and it was really nice to see. Even though they’re all adults, it brought a bit of difference to their day. We had photos with them and they were really excited, it reminded me about what Kirkwood is about and it’s about making the most of those days.”

“The biggest thing for me when I spent that time with them was seeing the look on the patient’s face and how much it meant to him and his children in that moment. It could have been a really sad time, and it was a really sad time, but it was a really positive memory and they’ll remember that forever. They were really happy and they’ll take that away, I know that it made him happy.”

“Working at Kirkwood I see the difference that we make to people and their families every day and working in fundraising, we do a lot of fun things. We do a lot of events and things that are really different but to have the chance to do that, it was really good to take something that we do and bring it across to the clinical side and actually see that making a difference right there.”

“Something that really shone through was every part of Kirkwood came together to make it happen and that is true of Kirkwood. Everyone teams together, they use their skills and what they are good at and all come together to make something happen, with the focus being the patients and the families and the service users.”

“Christmas is a really special time at Kirkwood because it’s the time of year that a lot of people look forward to, but for a lot of people that are using Kirkwood’s services, it can be seen to be a difficult time. Everybody here does everything that they can whether its organising an event or serving the Christmas meals on the In-Patient Unit or the little things like going and seeing a family as an elf and Santa, we do everything we can to make it special at what could be a really difficult time.”