Hospice patients become overnight internet sensation

Terminally ill patients in Luton have become an overnight internet sensation and gained celebrity backing as they bust the myth that hospice’s are just where you got to die.

The hard-hitting film by six patients from Keech Hospice Care shows the individual support each receives as they battle cancer, motor neuron disease or multiple sclerosis.

Rob Figgins, 45, from Luton who stars in the film has bowel, liver and stomach lining cancer, and has been told he has a year to live. He says he’s pleased he’s helped the message that hospices aren’t just places you go to in your final days of life reach more than ten thousand people in less than 24-hours.

“Let’s be honest, I was dubious on my first visit to Keech Hospice Care about how it would pan out. I thought Keech was only about end of life care and it would be full of cancer patients but everyone’s got all sorts wrong with them. I expected to find a room full of negative people always talking about dying. But Keech Hospice Care is a positive place – seriously! What I didn’t realise was just how much Keech Hospice Care does for people like me given where I am in my life right now.

“I’m chuffed that us patients are helping people realise that Keech Hospice Care, and hospices in general, are not just places where people only come to die.”

McBusted drummer Harry Judd and Richard Arnold, Good Morning Britain presenter are amongst the celebrities who have given their backing to the two-minute film.

As the adult hospice for Luton and Bedfordshire and the children’s hospice for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes, Keech Hospice chose to launch the internet sensation to mark the start of national Hospice Care Week.

Rob, a former painter and decorator and avid Luton Town fan said Keech Hospice Care is making living happen.

“When I got diagnosed at Easter this year, Keech helped me get on with it. I could go in the corner and cry about it but, when I come out of the corner, cancer will still be there.

“This is my new life and Keech Hospice Care is helping me embrace it. I’m not a number at Keech, I’m Rob. How can I be negative when I’ve got such positive backing? I love going to Keech every Thursday, having reflexology there and chatting to the lovely nurses and patients. It’s friendly, it’s comfortable and it’s relaxed. Keech has even offered support to my family and friends too – that’s pretty amazing for a charity.

“Take it from me, you never know when you or a loved one might need hospice care. I’ve decided Keech is where, when the time does come, I want to die. But, for now, it’s the place which helps mine and many others living to happen.”

To view the #Iam film and read more about the patients featured in it visit www.keech.org.uk/iam

For further information contact Lorna Milton, Senior PR Officer at Keech Hospice Care on 01582 497874/ 07824606856 or at lmilton@keech.org.uk.