Summary
We believe that high-quality hospice care should be there for the people who need it most, whoever they are, wherever they are. And yet, too many people don’t get the care they need at the end of their life.
Hospices such as Martlets provide vital, specialist care but receive very little government support. That’s why we rely on the generosity of our local community and why we’re so grateful for it. Here are five important reasons to support us and the local families who really need our care.
1. Hospices provide specialist palliative and end-of-life care
Hospices such as Martlets provide specialist palliative and end-of-life care, and vital support when families need us most. There’s nothing quite like them.
Our role is to ease the physical and emotional pain of death and dying, and to help our patients and their families make the most of the time they have left. Our focus is on what matters most to the patient, whether that’s to die at home, surrounded by loved ones and familiar things, or to experience something they’ve always wanted to do.
Our care includes:
- inpatient care from specialist staff (respite care, pain management and end-of-life care).
- ‘Hospice at Home’ and home visits from specialist medical, nursing and therapy teams.
- a dedicated phone hub for urgent support.
- a rehab team offering physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
- spiritual and psychological counselling.
2. Hospice care is underfunded and under threat
For decades now, Martlets has provided specialist palliative and end-of-life care to people of all ages from its local community. We’ve kept people out of A&E and busy hospitals, and enabled them to die in peace in the place they’ve chosen, surrounded by loved ones.
Demand for hospice care is growing – but the way hospices are funded does not work and varies wildly across the UK. So services are being cut and patients can face a postcode lottery of care.
It costs more than £12 million every year to provide hospice care for local people at Martlets. And yet our NHS grant funds only about a fifth of these costs. The rest is mostly covered by donations from our local community: we couldn’t do this without you.
3. Hospices enable people to receive care at home
At Martlets, most of our care happens in the community. Our specialist community team visits patients at home, helping them manage symptoms and supporting their mobility needs.
Our goal is to help patients stay at home, in familiar and comfortable surroundings, for as long as possible, if that’s what they want. This reflects the government’s ambition to shift the focus of care out of hospitals and back into local neighbourhoods.
Marie lost both her brothers to a rare form of leukaemia within three months. With hospice support, Dan and Carl were able to spend their final days at home, where they wanted to be. “The hospice helped my brothers live on their own terms for as long as possible,” says Marie.
4. Hospices support the whole family
While our care centres on the patient, it embraces their family too. We provide family members with practical, emotional and psychological support before, during and after their loved one’s death. We enable them to step away from being full-time caregivers, and make the very most of the precious time they have left together.
At Martlets, this support includes:
- expert help navigating difficult medical and social care decisions.
- emotional, psychological and spiritual support from trained staff and volunteers.
For many families, this support makes all the difference to how they cope, not only during their loved one’s illness, but in the months and years that follow.
5. High-quality hospice care should be there for local families
We believe that excellent palliative and end-of-life care should be there for those who need it most, regardless of their income, background or postcode. Yet, nearly one in three people in the UK who need hospice care can’t access it.
Hospices are woefully underfunded through the NHS grant – and this needs to change. As demand for hospice care and costs rise, hospices have had to make cuts to frontline services, or are considering them. This is true for 60% of hospices in England, for example, including ours.
The majority of our income comes from our amazing local community and their fundraising. Put simply, we simply could not keep on caring without their generosity. Whether hospice care has touched your life or not, we need your support.
We care passionately that hospice care should be available to local people who need it the most. Please show your love and support your local hospice: there are lots of ways to get involved. Whether you donate, volunteer, fundraise, remember a loved one, attend our events or spread the word, you’re helping to protect hospice care for local families – for today and for the future.
Show Your Love this winter and help us keep caring
This winter, we are asking our community to show their love for hospice care, so we can continue to provide our vital services to patients and families who need us.
Find out how you can get involved by donating, fundraising, or sharing through our Show Your Love campaign.
Updated 03/11/26