Jane, from Walton on the Naze, was delighted when little Owen the pony popped into her room on the third day of her stay in the inpatient unit. Here she shares what she thought about the experience and what hospice care means to her…

He was absolutely beautiful, he brightened my day up, it just meant the world to me.

I love horses, ponies, donkeys, and having my own horse for 28 years, to think I’m never going to be able to touch or stroke a horse again because I’ve been so poorly, and then for one to come in, it was such a wonderful moment and it was life changing to be able to join in and to brush the pony, he was gorgeous.

The work that is done here at the Hospice is fabulous. Staff go above and beyond and these extra events make such a difference to somebody's life.

I was scared of coming to the Hospice. I've had ovarian cancer for five years and I’ve had four rounds of chemo and always been fairly well in between, so never expected this to happen. If anyone mentioned ‘hospice’, I'm always ‘I don't need that. I'm fine. I don't need to know about it, don't want to talk about it.’ It always made me feel really scared so when I came in on Wednesday, as soon as they got me off the ambulance I felt quite emotional and not sure if I wanted to be here.

But I'm so, so happy and delighted to be here. It's changed my life being here because the staff are just overwhelmingly nice and it's so different to my interpretation of what I thought it would be like. The care is second to none, they go above and beyond for everything. 

Since Wednesday, I've seen the therapy dog, Toby, who was gorgeous and I thought that was such a treat, I've had reflexology, and then this morning they came in and asked if I want to see a pony, which is unbelievable. It's just fantastic and that moment with the pony is something I’ll remember for life. 

I can't believe that the Hospice can only use half the amount of beds at the moment because they're lacking on funding. The Government really needs to come out here and see the work that they do and put more money into it because it's definitely worthwhile. 

It’s something that's so vital for people; I think everybody should be able to have this kind of care.

So I can't tell you how grateful I am to everybody in the team for everything they've done.  

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