At Prospect Hospice, we provide outstanding, personalised and compassionate care for everyone in Swindon, Marlborough and the surrounding areas affected by a life-limiting illness, completely free of charge. For more than 40 years, we’ve been a dedicated, non-hospital, end-of-life care service for patients and their loved ones - around the clock, every day of the year. Our mission is to ensure that anyone can access the best possible expert care whenever and wherever they need it – whether at the hospice or in their own home. As a charity, we only exist because of the generosity and support of our amazing local community.
Find out about the range of end-of-life care services that we offer to patients and their families. These delivered free of charge and are designed to provide compassionate, personalised support during every stage of a life-limiting illness in every kind of care setting, to anyone who needs it.
We couldn’t do what we do without considerable support from our local community. Find out all the different ways in which you can support Prospect Hospice, including fundraising, volunteering and purchasing from our shops. All contributions are greatly appreciated and enables us to deliver care that is free of charge to our patients and their families.
Our café sits at the heart of our hospice in Wroughton and serves a range of delicious home cooked meals to suit all tastes. Whether you're looking to catch up with friends over lunch or relax with coffee and cake, our Heart of the Hospice café has you covered.
Whether shopping with us in person or online, or donating your pre-loved goods, we thank you for supporting us through our shops where you help to raise around £2million a year for Prospect Hospice.
We pride ourselves on being a great place to work and we're always looking for outstanding people to join our team at the hospice across all areas of the charity.
Prospect Hospice is the leading provider of education and training for end-of-life care in Swindon and north Wiltshire. Working closely with you, our colleagues within partner organisations, we want to ensure that the very best care is available to everyone facing the end of life. This is why we provide education and development opportunities, all of which aim to encourage learning and build confidence in end of life care and support.
Eighty five-year-old Colleen Maskell has loved being on the go all her life. Raised and educated in India in the last years of the British Raj, she married at 18 and within a few years was mum to three young children. She and the family moved to the UK, headed for Liverpool, and before the first week was out she had landed a job on the assembly line in a factory.
“I used to be out of the door before 6am each morning for a journey to work that involved three buses,” says Colleen, “and I wouldn’t get back until 6.30 at night. Then it was time to cook, look after the children and clean the house. Looking back, I don’t know how I managed it, but I did. I’ve always kept very busy.”
Her husband had always worked on the railways in India, so it’s not surprising that they eventually made their way to Swindon for work. As the years passed, Colleen worked in retail, accounts and became an usher at Swindon Court. Even when she retired, she couldn’t resist working for Meals on Wheels.
So when she began to feel unaccountably exhausted and found some lumps behind her ear, she went to her GP. The diagnosis of lymphoma was shocking, but Colleen says the great faith she has in God helped carry her through the initial tests and some treatment. She declined some of the more invasive treatments that were proposed, and decided she wanted to live the rest of her life as normally as possible – reading books and the daily newspapers, doing online research, and keeping in close touch with her family by Zoom and on her iPhone.
Colleen’s spirits began to dip when she realised that, despite wanting to do these things, she had simply become too tired and weak to even start.
“Fortunately, I had been put in touch with Prospect Hospice by the hospital, and the nurses there kept a close eye on me,” says Colleen.
“One, Sarah, suggested I go into the hospice’s inpatient unit, so that they could help me rest and get my energy levels back up. And it was absolutely fantastic there.
“I had a beautiful room to myself, and it felt like a posh hotel. I didn’t have to worry about anything – I didn’t even have to put the kettle on – and the staff were all so kind to me. They could take the time to talk to me – one of the best things was when Charlotte, my physiotherapist, would push me round the lovely grounds and we’d look at the plants together.
“I really hadn’t known what to expect before I went in, but every single person there was kind, attentive, and so caring. They really do love their patients. There’s no other word. When I came to go home a few weeks later, even the chef came to say goodbye to me – and gave me two packs of the sausages I’d said I loved, to take back home with me!”
Colleen says the “recharge” she got during her stay at Prospect Hospice enabled her to carry on living life “her way” for far longer than would have otherwise been possible. What surprised her, though, was that she was not charged a penny for the care she received.
“The quality of care is so high, and there’s such expertise, it’s incredible that there is no charge to patients or their families. It’s the people who give to Prospect Hospice, do fund-raisers, buy lottery tickets and help in other ways that keep the charity going. We are so lucky to have the hospice. You never know when it could be you that needs it – and as someone who has needed it, I can’t thank those who support it enough.”
Find out more about how you can support the work of the hospice with a regular gift here.