Fundraiser raises £2,000 from hospice bed for birthday celebration
A nurse and blogger who is living with stage four cancer raised £2,000 for Severn Hospice from bed to celebrate her birthday.
Carla Lea from Telford decided to fundraise for the hospice while receiving care on the Apley Ward – and made her donation to mark national Hospice Care Week.
The wife, mum and step-mum blogs about living with ovarian cancer and with tens of thousands of readers, used the platform to promote her birthday Facebook fundraiser.
She chose Severn Hospice to thank them for caring for her for two weeks after she said she was ‘admitted in so much pain she could not remember anything apart from wanting to die’.
Carla was later discharged from the hospice with a planned trip to the seaside and the message of positivity in the face of incurable illness.
She said: “Kindness and compassion is what makes hospice care. I can’t believe the amazing work that the volunteers and staff do here and I wanted to give back and say thank you for everything they did.
“Everyone becomes part of your little family, and they make and take the time to care properly and make a difference.
“What I think is really special about Severn Hospice is they not only care for you, they support your loved ones too, and that service doesn’t stop if something happens to you.
As it is Hospice Care Week, Carla wants to encourage others to think about what it takes to give care to those living with incurable illness, saying: “As a charity the hospice has to raise the funds to provide care; it is powered by volunteers, fundraisers and love.”
Apley ward sister, Mandy Reynolds, said: “We could not be more grateful to Carla for her fundraising efforts, especially while she was so ill.
“We have to raise £2 of every £3 we spend and many people are touched by our care and decide to raise funds, donate goods or volunteer their time to say thank you.
“Every effort means we can continue to provide support to other families in Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire and Mid Wales.”
