20 Sep 2024 Community

Phil and Karen Hayhurst proud to be Support Life Champions.

Phil and Karen Hayhurst’s journey with The Kirkwood has been deeply personal from the very start. Over the years, they have volunteered at countless events, supporting the charity in many ways. 

Now, they are taking their dedication a step further by becoming Support Life Champions, a role they feel passionate about as they help spread the word about The Kirkwood’s vital work in the community.

For Karen, the decision to become a Support Life Champion was rooted in her personal experience with The Kirkwood. “It started 19 years ago when my mum June died on The Kirkwood In-Patient Unit from bowel cancer,” she explains. “We knew what The Kirkwood was back then, but didn’t know a great deal about how it operated. The Kirkwood staff were absolutely brilliant with my mum’s care. They made us all feel welcome and really cared for us as a family.”

That experience with her mother left a lasting impression on Karen, driving her commitment to the charity. She is now using her role as a Support Life Champion to raise awareness about how The Kirkwood can help not just at the end of life, but throughout the journey of living with a life-limiting illness. “People still don’t understand exactly what The Kirkwood stands for, and it’s our job to explain that,” Karen says. “They think it’s just a place where people go at the end of their lives, but The Kirkwood is so much more. It’s about supporting people with life-limiting illnesses from the moment they’re diagnosed.”

Phil, who started volunteering with Karen a few years ago, agrees. Their work as Support Life Champions feels like a natural progression of their dedication to the charity. “We started volunteering before the COVID-19 pandemic, and when The Kirkwood told us about the Support Life Champions programme, we thought, well, we’ve done a lot of activities for the charity maybe this is a way to help spread the message in a different way,” he says.

The training they underwent to become Support Life Champions gave them new insights into how to communicate The Kirkwood’s message. 

“Doing the Support Life Champion training came as an extension of what we’ve been doing,” Phil explains. “We already knew a lot about The Kirkwood, but there were things we did learn, and it helped to freshen up our knowledge. What the training has taught us is that you can have all the facts, but you've got to pick your time to sort of drop in and say, ‘If you’re really struggling, this help is available.’ Without the training, I wouldn’t have started doing that.”

Karen found the training eye-opening as well. “The training was different to what I thought it would be, and it did open my eyes to how we can get the message out there,” she says. “It’s even more important than some of the activities we’ve volunteered at. People still don’t know how The Kirkwood can help, and that’s why our role as champions is so vital.”

As Support Life Champions, Phil and Karen now work to increase awareness about The Kirkwood wherever they can, both in their community and through personal connections. “I used to work in a school, and I’m heading there in a few weeks to hand out leaflets about The Kirkwood,” Karen shares. “I also share a lot of information on Facebook and social media to try and spread the word. It’s about getting that message out to people who don’t know that The Kirkwood isn’t just a place to come and die it’s about supporting life.”

Phil, too, finds great meaning in the work they’re doing as Support Life Champions. “Sometimes we feel we aren’t doing a lot to help, but being a Support Life Champion is about having those small conversations with people,” he says. “You wouldn’t know when the right time is to offer advice or direction without the training. It’s given us the tools to talk to people about The Kirkwood in a way that’s supportive and helpful.”

For Karen, there’s an even bigger goal in mind: reaching out to communities that may not have traditionally been aware of The Kirkwood’s services. “The Kirkwood is trying to support everyone with a life-limiting illness, no matter their background. I’m hoping The Kirkwood can continue reaching out to those communities, particularly ones that haven’t had a history of being cared for and supported by hospices,” she says. “As part of my role as a champion, I’d like to help foster those relationships and particularly build them up with young people.”

For both Phil and Karen, becoming Support Life Champions has been a way to deepen their involvement with The Kirkwood and ensure that more people in their community understand the full scope of services available. “The Kirkwood is important to the community of Kirklees,” says Phil. “People need to realise that without the fundraising and awareness that goes on, we wouldn’t have the brilliant charity we do today.”

Through their work as Support Life Champions, Phil and Karen hope to help as many people as possible connect with The Kirkwood’s services and understand that it’s not just a place for end-of-life care it’s a place that supports life in every way. As Karen says, “We love doing the volunteering, and we feel passionate about The Kirkwood and the care they provide to hundreds of people across Kirklees. Being a Support Life Champion is a way to help make sure that everyone who needs The Kirkwood knows how to find it.”