The Marie Curie International Memorial was formally established in 1948, and shortly afterwards it became the Marie Curie Foundation. This was the beginning of the charity that is now known as Marie Curie.
The charities priorities were:
• Establishing special residential homes to care for cancer patients.
• Providing home nursing
• Providing help with practical needs such as bed linen, furniture and medical equipment
• Giving the public advice about cancer and the help available for patients.
2023 marks 75 years since the Marie Curie Foundation was founded. We caught up with Kelly Knighting-Wykes to see how the donations the charity receives help people, how the last few years have tested the charity, and what they have in the pipeline for 75 years of Marie Curie.
How do the donations you receive help and what do they go towards?
“We spend where the need is greatest and provide care and support through a variety of services. It costs £20 for an hour of nursing care so any donations we receive always go to what is in need most at that time.
“We provide nursing support for in-patients and out-patients who are both receiving end of life care, we offer respite care, we handle when people are discharged and want to receive their end of life care at home so we handle their medication for them – we do all sorts.
“We give pre-bereavement support and bereavement support and help families of those who have lost someone come to terms with what has happened, while also helping them understand what happens at a funeral and the best ways to have those difficult conversations. We assist in the writing of letters of celebration for the families that are left behind, as well as have a lot of online tools, helplines, bereavement lines and a whole host of other services for those in need of end of life care, and for their families.
“The donations we receive make what we do possible and mean that we can continue to be readily available for people when they need us most. From £2 to pay for someone to have their favourite tipple from the drinks trolley when they are an in-patient, to £160 for a days’ worth of nursing - every donation, no matter the size makes a massive difference to how we are able to support people and their end of life care.” How have the last few years affected you? What have been your biggest challenges?
“March is usually one of our busiest months with The Great Daffodil Appeal where we typically raise £200,000. For the last three March’s we haven’t been able to run the full campaign and we have lost thousands of pounds of potential fundraising. Because of this, we have had to get creative with how we raise money for those who need it most and although it has been a challenge, it has been fantastic to see how creative and inventive people can be when they are passionate about something.
“Naturally due to Covid, not being able to bring people together has come at a cost for our fundraising. Similarly, as the world reopened and weddings and parties were rescheduled, often people have been prioritising these events over volunteering and giving the time to fundraise that they often would.
“Throughout this period, we have gained a lot of new passionate people and we are starting to rebuild after a difficult few years. We are trying things we haven’t done before, we are organising our first Solitaire Ball for our 75th birthday and lots of other exciting things in the pipeline to get our fundraising back to where it was pre-covid.”
What is the best thing about working for Marie Curie?
“My position means that I cover from Berwick down to the top of Staffordshire. I work at hubs in Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool and have an amazing team of community fundraisers throughout these areas.
“I’ve worked for other charities but have never experienced such a positive and warm environment as the one that is part of daily life at Marie Curie. Working with people towards ensuring that people’s end of life care is treated with respect, affection and support is at the heart of what we do, and I feel very lucky to be part of something so special.
“Being able to create candlelit dinners for couples to have a special last meal together, and 50th birthday parties that once seemed unreachable due to setbacks in health and treatments being able to actually happen is a privilege to be part of. No one should face end of life care alone and our amazing team at Marie Curie make sure that we do what we can to make the experience that little bit easier.”
To find out more about how to support Marie Curie head over to https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/
