“What surprised me most was the warmth of the people and the amount of laughter”

I have a brain tumour. It’s been operated on and it’s in a good place at the moment. I’m in phase three, and I still attend oncology regularly for my scans and appointments. I’m now into a period where it’s mostly about monitoring.

It was a big deal, the length of time I went through radiotherapy. I’ve lost some vision from that experience, some blurring in my left eye.

I have been attending Day Care at the hospice for about six or seven weeks. Before this, I didn’t really know the hospice. This is my first experience of it.

Discovering Warmth and Connection

My experience with Day Care has been very good. What surprised me most here was the warmth of the people and the amount of laughter.

What I expected was people sitting around moaning about the fact that they’ve only got so long to live. I was quietly surprised that there was no mention of illness. It has been about positive talk. It’s been nice. It’s a nice experience.

It’s lovely just to listen to people and enjoy being around them. It’s lovely to see people enjoying something, even if you might not enjoy it yourself. It’s a vicarious thing, you know. Something lovely like that.

I enjoy knowing about plants. I like to be able to design, in my own way, with plants. I like to be able to share that knowledge.

Living in the Moment

I get aromatherapy and massage therapy, and that’s quite pleasant. I’ve had some physiotherapy too.

There’s music therapy, the ladies get their nails done, we go out, and there’s art therapy. I haven’t had that yet, but I would like something to do with that.

I feel there are lots of things I haven’t done and lots of things I would have liked to do, but circumstances or difficulties held me back. That’s one of my things.

But coming here has been a pleasant experience. You’re not sitting in the passenger lounge waiting for something, if you know what I mean. You just live in the moment here. That’s been my experience.

– Paul, Day Care patient