Family donates £2,500 to create new Swan Room at PRH

A family has donated around £2,500 to create a new room at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford which will provide privacy and dignity for patients at the end of their life.

The new Swan Room was officially opened on Ward 8 on Monday (3 July 2017) by relatives of Hugh Dawson, who passed away on 14 December 2015, aged 73.

Hugh’s wife Gina Dawson, 70, and the couple’s daughters Emma Williams, 33, and Mandi Morris, 37, donated the money in memory of Mr Dawson, a retired RAF Flight Lieutenant in Air Traffic Control.

Mr Dawson, who was also a volunteer ticket inspector at Llangollen Railway, was admitted to PRH on 11 December 2015 with throat cancer, and members of his family stayed with him until he passed away.

Gina, from Market Drayton, said: “Hugh had throat cancer for eight years and had got over it once, but it returned and he was admitted to PRH.

“Our daughter Emma decided to raise money as we found there were no comfortable chairs for us while we stayed with Hugh whilst he was in hospital.

“Emma told Hugh she was going to raise money so that people had comfortable chairs to sit on with their loved ones in hospital and she told him she would complete the Three Peaks Challenge.”

Emma, together with her husband Glyn as well as friends Matthew Shore, Nathan Shore and Paul Sokolov, completed the Three Peaks Challenge in May 2016 and raised more than enough money for a chair – so much so that the donation has paid for a new Swan Room on Ward 8, the Head and Neck Ward, at PRH.

Swan Rooms are a space for patients that are at end of life to use, allowing relatives to spend valuable time with their loved one in a more peaceful and calming environment.

They have been made possible by kind donations from various sources.

The rooms contain items such as CD players, mood lights, beautiful pictures and reclining chairs.

The Swan Room on Ward 8 is the first at PRH and follows the creation of four rooms at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital – on the Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU), Ward 25, Ward 27R and Ward 28.

Gina added: “I thought the Swan Room would be a lovely legacy to Hugh.

“Being in hospital, particularly when a relative is at the end of their life, is incredibly difficult and a Swan Room helps to create a calm environment for people when their relatives are so terribly ill.

“Hugh was a keen artist, mainly painting for presentations for staff such as those who are retiring, but we also have some of his art at home.

“We donated a copy of a painting he did of a scene from Cornwall, which he loved to visit and it is on the wall of the new Swan Room in memory of Hugh.

“We hope that the creation of this room makes it a little bit easier for relatives when their loved ones are at the end of their life.”

Jules Lewis, End of Life Care Facilitator at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which runs PRH and RSH, said: “I’d like to thank Gina, Emma, Mandi and the rest of Hugh’s family for this incredibly generous donation.

“We have received fantastic support for our Swan Rooms, which are so important for relatives of our patients who are at the end of their life.”