Charlotte Priestley: Trusts Officer at Phyllis Tuckwell on Collaboration with The RNBT

‘A Naval veteran and Phyllis Tuckwell patient attending a ‘Living with illness’ session.’

Could you start by telling us a little about yourself and your role at Phyllis Tuckwell?

I am a trusts officer at Phyllis Tuckwell, where I am responsible for managing and developing relationships with trusts and foundations that support our work. This includes stewarding existing funders and identifying new trusts and foundations whose priorities align with our services such as education, Hospice at Home or outpatient services, specialist equipment and essential core cost grants. My role involves working closely with clinical, finance and senior leadership teams to develop strong, evidence-based funding applications and strong reporting.

I also played a key role in overseeing trust and foundation support for our recent Capital Appeal for our new Hospice which opens this year. This involved maintaining strong relationships throughout the project and ensuring our funders felt informed, valued and confident in the impact of their investment.

For those who may not be familiar, could you briefly explain what Phyllis Tuckwell does and the support you provide to patients and their families?

Phyllis Tuckwell is the only Hospice Care service for adult patients, and their families, living with an advanced or terminal illness (such as cancer, heart, lung or neurological disease) across the whole of West Surrey and part of North East Hampshire.

We are one of the oldest hospices in the UK, steeped in history, serving a community of over 550,000 people.

Our services include:

• Living Well – Designed to help patients living with an advanced or terminal illness, and those closest to them, to manage the impact of their illness, cope with changes, improve wellbeing and remain as independent as possible.
• Carer support – The effect of an advanced or terminal illness can go further than just the patient, so we have many services for our patients’ families, carers and loved ones.
• Hospice at home – Our Hospice at Home team gives patients and their families and carers access to high quality, specialist care in the place they most want to be… at home, or in their care home or community hospital.
• In-Patient Unit – Our IPU provides 24-hour care for patients who need symptom management or end of life care.
• Counselling and bereavement care – One to one counselling, group support, children and family support, advice and guidance on pre and post bereavement for professionals and families/carers.

Education – All our services are underpinned by education – to improve our own skills and knowledge, and to enable other professionals such as local GP’s, ambulance drivers and care homes, to deliver improved palliative and end of life care.

When supporting patients who are veterans, are there any particular needs or considerations to take in account?

Our Director of Patient Services, Catherine van’t Reit is definitely best placed to answer this:

“When providing palliative care for armed forces veterans in any hospice environment it is important to recognise their medical needs and the unique experiences that may shape how they approach illness and death. Many veterans could carry physical injuries, chronic pain, or service-related conditions, as well as psychological experiences such as post-traumatic stress or grief tied to military service. Our carers provide patient centred holistic care that recognises trauma that may have been experienced. We aim to be respectful and enable veterans to maintain dignity, autonomy and a sense of control.

Our teams are also additionally mindful of loud noises, understanding the importance of camaraderie and identity. Also, importantly ‘acknowledging’ military service (if the individual wishes) and in our experience, this can absolutely make a meaningful difference. Emotional and spiritual support should be tailored to the veteran’s values and beliefs. Above all, compassionate, holistic care that honours their service while focusing on comfort, trust and peace is essential in supporting veterans.”

The RNBT is proud to support Phyllis Tuckwell. How does this partnership help in your work?

Our partnership with The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust plays a vital role in enabling our charity to deliver high quality care, to a group whose service history and needs are very unique. This funding ensures that our multidisciplinary clinical teams, including nurses and therapists, can respond sensitively and effectively to the physical, emotional and social needs of naval veterans and their families.

Funding from The RNBT not only supports individual patient outcomes but also strengthens our team capacity to provide tailored, veteran-aware care alongside our broader services which in turn, helps our commitment to meet our diverse community needs.

Do you have an example of how this support has made a meaningful difference to a veteran or their family?

Through our Living Well and Hospice at Home services, veterans have been able to remain connected, active and supported and the importance of this support is reflected in patient stories.

“The Living Well sessions have been very helpful; I enjoy the company and having a chat and a laugh. I did a bit of indoor gardening, putting plants in a flowerpot. It’s outside my window now and the plants are flourishing. The last session I did was exercises, which was quite helpful. They gave me a pamphlet to take home, and I can do those exercises now, just sitting here. We made a Christmas pudding too, one day. There were about a dozen of us. It really helps me to get out and be around a mixture of people. The nurses look after me there. They keep feeding me with tea and biscuits! I’m pleased that I’ve been, and I hope to keep going.”

Palliative and end of life care affects families as much as patients. How does Phyllis Tuckwell support families during and after a relative’s time at the hospice?

We recognise that being a carer can be hard work and take its toll emotionally. Phyllis Tuckwell aims to support our carers and loved ones too. We are always looking at ways to support them. We offer:

• Early identification and assessment of carers’ needs, including use of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT),
• Emotional and psychological support, including one-to-one counselling, bereavement support, and group sessions,
• Specialist support for children and young people, including bereavement groups and individual support,
• Practical advice and advocacy, including benefits and entitlements guidance, help with applications, and signposting,
• Carer support programmes and peer groups, providing shared learning, coping strategies, and reduced isolation,
• Living Well and wellbeing sessions, supporting carers to maintain their own physical and emotional health,
• Ongoing support post-bereavement, ensuring carers are not left unsupported after a death.

From your perspective, why are partnerships such as the one between The RNBT and Phyllis Tuckwell so important?

The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust’s support over the past 14 years has been invaluable to us as a hospice care organisation, providing sustained, reliable funding that enables long-term planning and continuity of care for naval veterans and their families. We rely on ongoing funding to remain sustainable, and this long-standing partnership gives us the confidence to deliver specialist, responsive care to a vulnerable group whose needs can be complex and long-term.

This support allows us to care for veterans in their homes and communities, helping them to remain comfortable, dignified and supported, while also reducing pressure on NHS services by preventing avoidable hospital admissions. I also believe that we owe it to our veterans to give them the very best care that they deserve. It feels like we are able to truly ‘give back’ for their services to our country.

Looking to the future, what are the key priorities or challenges for Phyllis Tuckwell?

We are currently poised to open our new, larger hospice this year. The number needing our expert care is already high, however, due to our ageing and growing population, it is set to increase substantially. We know that by 2040, deaths in our community will have risen by 25%, and the number of people needing palliative care will have doubled by 2060. So, after many years of planning, we took on the challenge of building a larger hospice for our community. This project is an ambitious and momentous undertaking that will enable us to be there for more local people when we are most needed.

In an increasingly challenging funding climate, hospices need support more than ever before. This is why long-term partnerships such as the one we have with RNBT are vital. They enable us not only to survive, but to plan responsibly for the future, invest in skilled clinical teams, and continue delivering high-quality end of life care to our veterans and patients.

Finally, is there a message you would like to share with The RNBT community and supports about the importance of hospice care and how they can help make this work possible?

To the RNBT community and its supporters, we would like to express a heartfelt thank you for your continued commitment to hospice care. Your support really does make it possible for us to provide compassionate, dignified care to naval veterans and their families at some of the most challenging moments of their lives. Hospice care is not only about end of life support, it is about helping people to live as well as possible, for as long as possible, while also supporting those who care for them.

Thank you to Charlotte for taking the time to speak with us about Phyllis Tuckwell and their partnership with The RNBT. You can find out more about Phyllis Tuckwell and all of their amazing work on their website.