As a senior nurse at Marie Curie in North Yorkshire, Susan Ebbage is responsible for supporting both the charity’s staff and patients.
Ms Ebbage allocates nurses to patients after receiving daily updates on their health.
The nurses then visit the patient’s home, introduce themselves to the family and care for their loved one overnight, usually from 10pm to 7am.
Ms Ebbage, who works regularly across the Harrogate district, said:
“This allows the families to have some rest. Patients are reassured by their presence and family members are able to go to sleep. It’s an incredibly emotional time and therefore you can’t put a price on a night’s sleep.
“A lot of the families, particularly in Harrogate, live abroad and that can be horrible for them. It’s about identifying situations like this and trying to give them support where we can.”
Twenty five years
Ms Ebbage has been working in her current role for around eight years and has been with Marie Curie for 25 years.
She lives in the Yorkshire Dales, and while her role is often administrative, she still visits patients in the area when she is needed.
She said:
“I trained at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and was a community midwife. I always loved patient care. I love being able to support them and helping them be able to become independent and regain control. These are all things as human beings we dread being taken away from us.
“If people are dying or ill, I like being able to take good care of them so they don’t feel like a burden.”
Read more:
- ‘Everybody matters’: Marie Curie’s UK medical director on why she has the ‘best job in the world‘
- Charity Corner: the local charity supplying 36,000 wheelchairs worldwide
Ms Ebbage said a highlight of her Job was working with families who clearly love the person they are looking after.
But she added that there were also difficult issues that had to be dealt with.
‘Sorrows, sadness and regrets’
She said:
“I never tire of seeing families care for their own well. I get upset when I see families who aren’t interested. But you have to try and understand what has gone on. You listen to sorrows, sadness and regrets.
“We talk to people who tell us quite dark things at times. We have to ask them what to do with that. That might involve getting a minister to go and see them.
“We also have to keep an eye out for safeguarding. It’s not just about abuse or cruelty. Some are difficult to spot straight away. We have to make a case and follow that through.”
Ms Ebbage said the work of Marie Curie was really important.
She added:
“We have struggled like may other charities over the last two years. The nurses have been outstanding. Up to 300 nurses go out seven nights a week across the country.”
Co-ordinated approach
Ms Ebbage explained that the charity worked in conjunction with Saint Michael’s Hospice in the Harrogate area. They have meetings three times a week and share patients. Marie Curie also works with services and charities including Harrogate end of life co-ordination, NHS Continuing Healthcare and Macmillan Cancer Support.
She said:
“We have a co-ordinated approach to care in the Harrogate district. It’s really important and we have got that down to a fine T. In Harrogate there are a lot of care providers. This ensures people get the most appropriate care they need and we are not wasting resources.
Fundraiser
The Marie Curie Brain Game is returning to Yorkshire for a fourth time on Thursday, January 26 and for the first time in Harrogate in the newly refurbished Majestic Hotel & Spa.
Guests will be treated to a drinks reception before enjoying a gourmet three-course dinner. The celebrity-hosted quiz will run throughout the evening and guests will also have the opportunity to bid for exclusive lots in the live and silent auctions, and win prizes in the grand raffle.
This black-tie event invites companies from across Yorkshire to come and enjoy an evening of brain-teasing entertainment and battle it out in the ultimate corporate quiz to be crowned Yorkshire Brain Game champions.
To book a table, click here.
‘Everybody matters’: Marie Curie’s UK medical director on why she has the ‘best job in the world’When Dr Sarah Holmes was on a hospital ward round and it became clear a long-term patient was dying, a consultant said they didn’t need to see her anymore.
“Outraged” at this, Dr Holmes, who had only recently qualified, snuck away and went to see her.
It was at this moment she realised she wanted to pursue a career in palliative medicine.
Now, just over 20 years later, she is a consultant in this field and is the medical director of Marie Curie Hospice Bradford, where she has worked since 2007.
In July 2020, she became UK medical director for Marie Curie, and combines this role with her ongoing clinical work in the hospice.
‘There is loads we can do to make life better’
Dr Holmes, who is set to move to Harrogate in the coming weeks, told the Stray Ferret:
“I just really wanted to make sure that people are looked after right until the end of their lives, not just if an illness is fixable.
“Even if the illness can’t be cured, there is loads that we can do to make life better. From working at Marie Curie for so many years, I see that every day.”
Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end of life charity. It provides frontline nursing and hospice care, a free support line and a wealth of information and support on all aspects of dying, death and bereavement.
Marie Curie Bradford Hospice.
Describing the work of Marie Curie, Dr Holmes explained that the team looked after anyone with a life-limiting illness.
She explained:
“A lot of people think we just look after people with cancer, but it can be any life-limiting illness. So I see lots of people with motor neurone disease or Parkinson’s disease or lung conditions. All sorts of conditions really.
“When you tell people you work with people who have got life-limiting illnesses, they say ‘oh gosh that must be really depressing’. But actually, it’s just an amazing job. It’s the best job in the world.
“It’s all about life and living and getting the most out of life.”
Dr Holmes said there were obviously sad moments, as they were looking after people who were dying.
However, she said there was an enormous sense of satisfaction to know that you had supported a person to die peacefully and comfortably.
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She added:
“You also make a difference to the family afterwards as well. We are here to look after them and make sure they get all the support that they need.
“People are amazing. They let us into their lives at points that are really difficult. It’s just an incredible privilege what they share with us.
“I feel really lucky to be doing this job.”
Nursing service
Dr Holmes said while the Bradford hospice supported that particular population, there was a nursing service in North Yorkshire made up of qualified nurses and healthcare assistants.
She said:
“In the Harrogate area, if someone was at home and dying, one of our healthcare assistants or nurses would go and be with them overnight.
“It gives the family a chance to get some rest because sometimes it can be quite hard work looking after someone all the time at home. So it allows the family members to get some sleep and be confident that their loved one is being looked after.”
Dr Holmes said the work of Marie Curie was vital.
She said:
“I think it is really important actually. Just looking after people at the end of life is really important.
“Whatever advances we have in medical science, we are all going to die at some point. We get care from before we are born, but actually I think sometimes not everybody gets the care at the end of their life that they should get.
“We feel at Marie Curie that we have got a really important role to raise awareness of the importance of that.
“Everybody matters and everybody should be able to get the care and support that they need right up until the end.”
Fundraiser
The Marie Curie Brain Game is returning to Yorkshire for a fourth time on Thursday, January 26 and for the first time in Harrogate in the newly refurbished Majestic Hotel & Spa.
Guests will be treated to a drinks reception before enjoying a gourmet three-course dinner. The celebrity-hosted quiz will run throughout the evening and guests will also have the opportunity to bid for exclusive lots in the live and silent auctions, and win prizes in the grand raffle.
This black-tie event invites companies from across Yorkshire to come and enjoy an evening of brain-teasing entertainment and battle it out in the ultimate corporate quiz to be crowned Yorkshire Brain Game champions.
To book a table, click here.