Every weekday at Strathcarron Hospice we welcome around 20 people into our Daycare Unit.

This service provides clinical and therapeutic care for patients who are living at home with a life limiting illness and in the last year we have seen 160 new come through the door. If you haven’t visited the Daycare Unit we can assure you it is a beautiful space, full of light, life and laughter. There are nurses, Doctors and Complementary and Art Therapists all available to ensure everyone gets the most out of their time spent there. There is even a little volunteer-run hair salon so people can go away feeling truly pampered. All of this combined helps patients to relax and feel a little better when facing a tough time.

For some patients this will be the only day of the week they are able to leave the house, supported by a volunteer driver who will make sure they arrive safely and return home again at the end of the day. Volunteer and patient relationships are a key element of the friendships made and no more so than Brain and Michael. Michael loves to write stories and poems but due to his on-going condition this has proved to become problematic. Although he is still able to makes short notes of his ideas what he really needed was someone to scribe for him. Michael’s imagination is very active and he now has the help of Brian to scribe for him on a tablet. Michael and Brian spend many an hour transferring thoughts and ideas into prose. Through their shared sense of humour and creativity they have put together a small book of short stories and poems. Taking it one stage further, Brian very kindly had a number of books published much to Michael’s sheer delight.

Creativity has been proven to have positive effects on health, self-esteem and vitality. Through writing we preserve stories and memories which may otherwise be lost.

Michael and Brian’s time together spent writing is entertaining to both of them and we all know having fun is an important part of personal wellbeing. Why not give it a try; it’s never too late to get creative!