You arrived at this page by selecting:Marie Curie Hospice (YEP and T & A 02/09/08)
I was invited the other day to pay a visit to the Marie Curie Hospice in Bradford for Bradfordians, like myself, may well remember what used to be the Old Leeds Road Hospital.
I can remember going to the Old Leeds Road Hospital as a younger chap to see clients who were there because they had been in an accident and I was trying to get them some compensation.
I have not been there for many years, growth of the firm has meant that for one reason or another every time something of that nature has come up somebody else has gone and done it instead.
So when I went round there recently it was the first time for possibly 15 years. In that time what was the Old Leeds Road Hospital has been closed, laid empty for a few years and then re-opened and acquired by the Marie Curie Cancer Charity to use as a hospice. What a difference they have made.
My recollection was that it was a very old Victorian building that really showed its age, but they seem to have taken the grip of it, spruced it up insofar as it remains and extended it with nice new modern bits as well. As a result it's like one of those places that makes you wish you were ill so that you could have a stay there too.
It was a real treat to see how good quality care can be given to people in the extremes of life and I can thoroughly recommend this charity to anybody who has a bob or two to give away.
Of course as lawyers we often get involved in dealing with the aftermath of deaths and most people know this because they come to us for the probate and so on, but it's a good idea to be reminded occasionally of the human story that leads up to these things. We also get involved a lot in the preparation for death by means of making such things as Powers of Attorney for people who are in a state where they anticipate not being able to look after themselves for much longer.
One thing that impressed me about the hospice was that it seems very much a family orientated thing where the residents don't just come along on their own, but are encouraged to have all their family around them. Unfortunately in my job I do know, I think more than most, that there are so many people about who don't seem to have any family at all, and these are the people for whom I am always the saddest.
As a solicitor I do have a job to do, but it makes me sad whenever I have to play the role in legal terms of a family member for somebody who doesn't have a real family, and places like the hospice don't just need financial donations from people, they need people to give their time to befriend people and to just simply spend time talking to them.
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