Kathy's story

Kathy Pickard has been supporting St Leonard’s Hospice for 42 years. She was supporting the Hospice even before it was built, as part of the Copmanthorpe Support Group in 1983 and she continues to work as a volunteer gardener. She says it’s been a “joy and a privilege” to be associated with the Hospice.

She was a reluctant volunteer at first, thinking it must be a sad place to work, but she soon found it was just the opposite.

“All the staff made it as happy and normal for the patients and their families, just as if they had a poorly person at home,” said Kathy.

One of her first jobs, working in the Day Hospice, was to wash a lady’s hair and she soon progressed to helping on the wards, making cups of tea and coffee and sitting with patients who needed company.

“The nurses did all they could for the patients. On one occasion there was a lady who had given up. Someone found out she had loved to go to the races, so it was arranged that a horsebox would bring a Shetland pony in! The lady’s bed was right at the end of the corridor, so a procession of horse, spade and shovel travelled through the Hospice to the lady’s bedside! She was so surprised and touched that someone should take that much trouble for her that she eventually went home and lived a couple more years.”

As the Hospice got busier, it advertised for two part time receptionists and it was then that Kathy and Carolyn Waterfield were appointed as receptionists on a job share basis.

“It was a privileged position to be on reception, often listening to people’s worries. It was from this job that I realised how valuable and helpful to the bereaved that the Hospice was with its aftercare and bereavement support service,” said Kathy.

So, the next stop for Kathy was taking a counselling course run by the Hospice in 2003 and doing bereavement support work for St Leonard’s until the COVID pandemic. Now she continues to work in the Hospice gardens as a volunteer gardener, helping to keep the beautiful gardens tidy and helping with the annual plant fair.