Ty Olwen

A survey to determine the priorities for end of life care has been launched to gain the opinions of patients, carers and staff.

The palliative and end of life care priority setting project is a collaboration led by Marie Curie which includes the Medical Research Council, Macmillan and the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research to name a few.

Its aim is to gain a society view of what the priorities are for the care and support we can provide to people who are in their last year(s) of life.

The project set out to identify the questions patients, carers, family members and professionals wanted to know about palliative and end of life care and to prioritise them. Understanding the priorities will help us direct money and time towards answering these questions first.

1,400 people participated in the first phase of identifying the questions about care and support they would like answers to. These questions have been grouped and categorised into 83 issues, ranging from accessing services, organisation of care, managing symptoms and medications. The next stage is to prioritise these questions.

Now the project is asking for public support to gather the views of as many people as possible, from all areas of society (patients, carers, their family and professionals). It provides an opportunity to directly influence the future research into care, support and treatment for people in the last year(s) of their life.

Within the questionnaire, participants are asked to consider if each issue is a very low priority; low priority; high priority; or very high priority. There is also an option for no opinion.

The website for the questionnaire is www.palliativecarepsp.org.uk. The closing date for this is 26th October.

Staff at Ty Olwen were delighted to welcome Wendy Moses to the Unit recently to hand over the cheque to Staff Nurse Karen Roberts from the Welsh National Vintage Extravaganza in memory of her late husband Ivor

Organisers of the ‘Welsh National Vintage Extravaganza’ Christine and Adrian Mannings (www.camvintage.co.uk) have presented a cheque for £550 to Ty Olwen’s Helen and Paul Murray at a charity evening held at the Castle Hotel, Llandoverey. The donation was part of the proceeds of their show at Pembrey Motor Racing Circuit held on August Bank Holiday weekend and with an additional donation in memory of Ivor Moses who had been looked after by the wonderful Ty Olwen staff.

A raffle held at the South Wales Evening Post ‘Women in Business Awards 2014’ held at the Marriott Hotel on Friday 3rd October has raised over £800 for Ty Olwen. Sam Teague, Advertising Director for South West Wales Media recently handed over the ‘Gift Aided’ donations to Vice Chairman Paul Murray at the Evening Post offices in High St.

Thanks to Kath Ahern (pictured on the left) another of our brave runners in the Cardiff Half Marathon seen here with friends at the finish.

Well done Martin in completing yet another Cardiff Marathon in a time of 2 hours 8 minutes despite carrying an injury. He said it was a great run and atmosphere and “most importantly a nice sum of money raised for Ty Olwen” Thank you Martin!

Players from Morriston Town Boys Club have proved that they are young stars off the pitch by raising money for Ty Olwen. The youngsters put their best feet forward for a sponsored walk along Swansea’s Promenade. They were inspired to take the charity challenge after player Harvey Smale went to Ty Olwen to visit his great grandfather Cliff John. The team then visited to present a cheque for £250 to President Margaret Bartlett. 

Chris Pease of Leeds sadly lost his brother at Ty Olwen in 2013 and felt that he would like to do something for Ty Olwen to support the Unit and “the wonderful staff who looked after my brother Steve”. Then one day at the gym whilst on a rowing machine he wondered how long it would take to ‘row’ from Leeds to Swansea a distance of 300 km. A sponsored ‘rowathon’ took place at the Mercure Hotel Gym in Leeds recently when family and friends came together to ‘row’ to Swansea in just over 13 hours and raise £1000. Chris called at Ty Olwen this week on his way back to Leeds from St. Ives to make the presentation to Staff Member Nicola Powis and Ty Olwen Chairman Helen Murray. Plans are in place to carry out a similar event next year in Swansea to ‘row’ back to Leeds!

Julia and Martin Mahoney have been at it again! Tonight they have been collecting sponsorship for Martin’s Cardiff Half Marathon next week at the Cwmfelin Club and are pictured with Steward Alan Diamond and a whopping £135. Thank you to everybody who has supported Martin.

Well done to all who took part in the Swansea 10k today including Ty Olwen staff Rebecca, Jean and Lisa.

Lisa before

.and afterwards!

Thank you to the members of Penlan Social Club who lunchtime today donated £150 to Ty Olwen via Martin and Julia Mahoney in support of Martin who in two weeks time will be running the Cardiff Half Marathon for us.