BURY Hospice staff have made a piece of artwork inspired by their patients.

As part of Dying Matters week, Bury Hospice, alongside Pennine Care Foundation Trust, Pennine Acute Trust and Bury CCG, held an art competition.

Bury Hospice head of clinical services, Ellie Burke, said: “The idea was to get people to positively change their attitudes and behaviour around talking about and planning for death."

Bury Hospice submitted its own collage inspired by the patients at their day care service, who are living with life-limiting illnesses but who are not in the final stages of life.

“We asked patients to go through their story,” said health care assistant Georgina Gaff.

“They told us how they felt when they were first diagnosed with words like ‘worried’, ‘alone’ and ‘shocked.’

“We then asked about the reactions of their family and friends and then followed their path through treatment and support.

“Many said it started negatively but after coming to the day care services at Bury Hospice they felt better and talked about ‘feeling safe’ ‘humour’ and ‘not scared.’

“It was inspirational to talk to the patients and I think the big thing for me was that coming to Bury Hospice once a week made them ‘feel safe’ which meant a lot.

“We then talked about their wishes when they died and it helped them focus on this and feel more at ease with it.”

Mrs Burke said: “Raising awareness of the options available to people at end of life is a very difficult and often a taboo subject.

“It was amazing to see how, though the art competition, the public engaged with us which allowed us to open up some interesting discussions.

"The artwork produced by the staff and patients who attend the Day Services at the Hospice is very powerful and I hope demonstrates the positive work carried out in the supportive services offered at the Hospice.”

All the artwork for Dying Matters week was displayed in the Millgate Shopping Centre and Tesco in Bury and voted for by the general public with prizes donated from supporters of Bury Hospice.

The art project was organised by Jacqueline Halstead, project lead from The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, along with Patsy Gibson, end of life care facilitator, Bury Hospice’s Ellie Burke, and was supported by the MacMillan end of life care clinical lead Dr Debbie Hartley.