14 Jun 2024 Community

Community leaders visit The Kirkwood and bring gifts to celebrate Eid

The Kirkwood always appreciates it when visitors and community leaders from the Kirklees area come to visit our fantastic staff and patients at our site in Dalton. Last week Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York visited us during volunteers week. This week a number of local Imams and community leaders visited the hospice.

Qari syed Makda masjid taqwa, Maulana Zubair Makda, Hussain Lunat and Iqbal Bhana all visited the hospice on Thursday 13th June to deliver gifts to the patients and staff. It was great to have them visit us as we gave them a tour of our site in Dalton. 

The guests met patients Fergus and George and discussed how they feel their care had been whilst on our In-Patient Unit. They also met The Kirkwood's CEO Michael Crowther, Director of Clinical Services Lynne Hall-Bentley, Income Generation and Marking lead Duncan Batty and Fundraising Manager Altaf Hussain. 

The purpose of the visit was to strengthen connections between local Muslim community leaders and Imams to The Kirkwood and how we operate as a charity. The guests brought gifts to the hospice in celebration of Eid which is being celebrated on Monday. 

On the guests visit Fundraising Manager Altaf commented: “We were delighted to welcome four esteemed guests to The Kirkwood's site in Dalton on Thursday. Following on from our Ramadan campaign earlier in the year this is another example of us looking to engage with the Muslim community. 

“Our ultimate goal is to make those of the Muslim faith aware that we are here in Kirklees to provide care for anyone no matter their faith, religion, heritage or background. We want to show love, compassion and respect to everyone and support anyone in our region with a life limiting illness. 

“I'd like to thank all the guests that came to The Kirkwood today and visited us and brought our patients and staff gifts in to help celebrate Eid.” 

On visiting The Kirkwood for the first time Iqbal Bhana commented: “It was fantastic to visit The Kirkwood and see the phenomenal work that The hospice does. It was really interesting to see not only how they look after patients on the In-Patient Unit but also how they care for people through their services in the community. 

“I think everyone should learn more about The Kirkwood and support it as much as they can so they can continue to support those in our community. 

“The Kirkwood supports people no matter their faith, colour or religion and that has been really great to see. We appreciate being able to come here and make this visit.”