15 Jun 2021 Care

The Kirkwood and Town Foundation work to connect people through sport

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, our Support & Therapy Team have launched Virtual Wellbeing Sessions for people living with a life limiting illness and their carers to access support from their own homes. The team were delighted to continue working with the Town Foundation on delivering Sporting Memories for service users virtually throughout the pandemic.

Since October 2019, The Huddersfield Town Foundation has delivered the Sporting Memories programme which is designed to encourage conversation and reflection through the use of imagery, memorabilia and quizzes. January 2020 saw The Kirkwood launch its partnership with the Foundation, in which staff of both organisations work together to deliver engaging sessions to their service users.

The first two Sporting Memories sessions with our Support & Therapy team were delivered in-person, supporting people living with neurological conditions, such as dementia, and their carers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the programme has been adapted to be delivered virtually via Microsoft Teams.

We established our Men’s Space Group with sport a particular topic of interest, and the sessions proved extremely popular. With the support of the Town Foundation, all sessions are now open to everybody eligible for support and take place monthly.

Town legend turned Club Ambassador Andy Booth has also spoken to participants about his career and favourite sporting memories.

 

On the success of the programme Mary Tyrrell Place, our Support and Therapy Service Manager, commented: “The sessions are well attended and very popular - mainly because of their accessibility, inclusivity, and common theme of laughter!

"One of the challenges we face at The Kirkwood is breaking down the stigma associated with the word ‘hospice', and the Sporting Memories concept really resonated with me because it focusses on physical and mental wellbeing - just like The Kirkwood does.

"We focus on what matters to the individual and aim to enable our service users to live on and live well. The Sporting Memories programme is a great adjunct to this mindset.”

Evan Hall, who works in the Town Foundation’s Health team, added: “The partnership with The Kirkwood has enabled us to reach a new audience and it’s been satisfying to see just how much of an impact the Sporting Memories sessions have had.

"I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mary and her team for accommodating us, and I look forward to continuing our work together over the coming weeks and months!”

We currently offer Sporting Memories sessions for all our services users and a Sporting Memories session within our weekly Men's Space on a Thursday. To find out more about our Virtual Wellbeing Sessions, click here.