Inside St Christopher’s hospice: Take a look at a Saturday when no one talks about illness

The day includes interaction games and life-skill activities

St Christopher’s hospice is celebrating 50 years. The hospice was founded in 1967 and is widely recognised as the first modern hospice in the UK. Located in Sydenham, it provides care and support to more than 6,000 people across five south east London boroughs (Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark).

Despite its main mission of providing palliative care for terminally ill patients, at St Christopher’s the focus is on life, rather than death. The hospice runs several activities to support in and outpatients, their families and the local community.

To mark its 50th anniversary, The Independent is releasing a six-episode series, highlighting the stories of the people who have been benefiting from the hospice’s services to live a better life.

In the third episode, we joined the hospice’s team of nurses and volunteers in a drop-in day of activities designed to young outpatients, aged 17 to 25, who are moving from children’s to adult services.

Every other Saturday, a group of young adults spends the morning and afternoon at the hospice, taking part in several activities, ranging from interaction games to gardening and learning different life skills.

“The aim of the Saturdays is to bring young people together, irrespective of their illness, whether is a life-limiting illness or an oncology illness. The common theme is the age gap”, said clinical nurse specialist Phillipa Sellar.

“A lot of the decisions in life - as to how to travel or use money - they can’t do it.”, said nurse Kath Firth. “So we try and balance having some fun, but also bringing in some life skills and give them confidence to live an independent life”, she added.

In 2016, St Christopher’s hospice cared for 254 patients in their centres. Among them is the Young Adults Group.

“It’s very different to the other work we do here”, said healthcare assistant Sid Manns. “I’m sort of the same age as them [the patients], so we can chat about just normal things”, he added.

St Christopher's hospice is located in 51-59 Lawrie Park Road, London, SE26 6DZ.

For more information, visit: http://www.stchristophers.org.uk/