Majabean Ali first came to the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow seven years ago. The experience was to change her life. And, as a result, that of many others.
Mrs Ali visited the hospice in Calton Park with her mother in law, who was dying of lung cancer, the first Asian woman to be cared for in the hospice.
The treatment her mother-in-law received so impressed her that she wanted to help out. And so she has spent the last seven years working at the hospice. She volunteered for four years and then began working as a part-time Cultural Liaison Officer. Over that time her help has been instrumental in the hospice reaching out to ethnic minority communities to offer help in end-of-life care.
Where she has led others have followed. The hospice now boasts 60 ethnic volunteers and has developed relationships with religious leaders of many different faiths. Multicultural admissions are up. And as it seeks funding for a new purpose-built hospice in Bellahouston Park, the hospice is hoping to expand its outreach programme.
For Mrs Ali, her efforts are simply an attempt to pay back those who helped her at a difficult time. "After the tremendous support and end-of-care that my mother-in-law received, I just wanted to give something back to the hospice," she said.
Barbara Love, clinical nurse specialist in palliative care and the programme director for widening access, has 16 years' experience as a district nurse behind her. She believes that Mrs Ali's inside knowledge – combined with the efforts of community elders such who have been vocal in their support of the hospice – has been hugely helpful in its efforts to help those in minority communities.
"South Asian families traditionally look after their own at home," Mrs Love explained. "and as a district nurse and palliative care specialist there were many occasions that I was frustrated by the unnecessary pain and suffering that I could see and I just couldn't bear it. I was constantly trying to figure out how do we engage with so many diverse communities, build their trust and support them with end-of-life care, without tramping over their traditions and beliefs."
The hospice's efforts – which include educating its own staff and even providing them with phonetic phrase books in Urdu, Hindi and Arabic – has led to Mrs Love and Mrs Ali being given awards to fund trips to Mumbai to see how palliative care is delivered in India. The duo have also started giving presentations on the Glasgow model to palliative care specialists.
The hospice is now seeking to build a new facility that meets the growing demands for its services. It requires £21m to construct a new hospice in Bellahouston Park in three years' time. It has already raised 67% of what it needs. A new building will allow it to expand and improve what it can do for anyone needing help from whatever background.
And as Mrs Ali explained, it is not just those seeking care who have had their lives transformed by the hospice. "Allah as my witness, I am a different woman today and it is thanks to Barbara Love, her encouragement, her humanity and her vision. I am still here and we are making a real difference."
The Hospice is currently fundraising for their new build and asking people to make a donation and put a message on a heart which will be set into the foundations of the new build. If you wish to make a donation and put your heart in the Hospice, go to www.ppwh.org.uk/brick-by-brick/foundations-appeal
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel