WHEN people choose to die at home it means they feel safe and supported in that place.
When David, 52, was told he had just weeks to live from bone cancer, he knew where home was – among the caring staff and fellow residents at the Leonard Stocks homeless hostel in Torquay.
David had been living in the hostel for months but a fall revealed the onset of terminal cancer.
David was offered the opportunity to stay in hospital, move into a care home or Rowcroft hospice but David asked the hostel team if he “could come home”.
Staff had no hesitation in granting his request and were immediately busy contacting social services, and the medical teams which could provide the palliative care which David needed.
The hospital delivered a bed and mattress and David moved downstairs, next to the staff office, so they could drop in frequently. He was given his own walky-talky to call for help if it was needed.
Four weeks after his diagnosis David was very weak. Hostel staff were spending many hours comforting him in the way that any extended family cradles a loved one during their final days.
His son and friends visited, Macmillan nurses too and then peacefully, David passed away with three hostel staff by his side, his final wish granted.
The hostel manager said: “David was a very kind man, honest and polite all the way, and I am so proud of the work the staff did. It has been a very emotional time but we were privileged to support David to die with dignity in the place he called home”.