There's Snow Stopping Weston Hospicecare

The region may have woken up to several inches of snow on Wednesday, but it was business as usual at Weston Hospicecare as staff pitched in to keep their vital service up and running.

The in-patient unit at the hospice in Uphill is currently looking after five people and has remained fully staffed, including nurse Dawn Kearley who had worked through the night but remained at the unit through Wednesday morning to make sure her patients were okay.

As well as the patients at the hospice itself the charity provides free palliative care to about 1,100 people with life-limiting illnesses in the community, and support to their families in North Somerset and neighbouring parts of Somerset.

Community Nurse Team Leader John Bailey walked in from Locking while other Community Nurses decided to work from home so that they could contact all their patients in their homes to check up on them.

Other staff members doubled up taking on whatever jobs needed doing including Chief Executive Philip Stevens who was clearing the snow from the front of the building first thing with IT manager Natasha Ballard, and chaplain Karen Murphy who has been working on reception.

Hospice spokeswoman Martina Nertney said: “Everybody has just got on with it and kept things going here, which has been a bit of fun as well.

“Despite the snow we have been operating as normal.

“Financial Controller Catherine Davies-Gallagher, IT Manager Natasha Ballard, Maintenance Manager Dan Purdy and our volunteer Jimmy were all heroically shovelling snow to keep the hospice accessible.”