Ducks in a row

Kevin and Sharon Cranfield had been married for 17 years, their dream wedding taking place on Boxing Day 2004 on Langkawi island in Malaysia, narrowly avoiding the devastating tsunami. 

The couple later worked together at their company, Esion Acoustics Limited, a noise control business which Kevin started in 2013, excitedly coming up with the name by spelling noise backwards.

Two years later, Kevin was diagnosed with incurable kidney cancer which had metastasis in his lungs. Sharon remembers:

“He had the kidney removed and was prescribed targeted therapy drugs which caused a huge amount of side effects. He would have breaks from treatment and every time it would grow somewhere else.”

In 2020 Kevin started receiving hospice care from his St Helena Hospice community nurse specialist and SinglePoint. Sharon continues:

“I had counselling sessions to help me through his incurable diagnosis the prospect of him dying. It was how I managed that in my head along with caring for him and seeing him in pain.”

After a while Sharon had a break from the sessions while the couple focussed on his treatment and making the most of the time they had left together. 

Kevin died in hospital during the Covid pandemic and overwhelmed with grief, Sharon felt she needed help and began sessions with bereavement support worker Mary.

“More people would benefit if they took up counselling. It's not easy the initial step, and I did cry through most of the sessions with Mary until the latter few but it's sort of what you need to go through.”

By the end of 2023, Sharon was feeling quite run down. She’d had a busy work year with the company and she had been supporting her business parter who had been going through his own grief as his wife was being cared for by St Helena Hospice and subsequently died in the Hospice.

“I wasn't feeling great but I just thought I was tired, and obviously still grieving Kev. I’d been to the doctor because I'd started a cough which carried on and became worse and worse.”

After many tests, Sharon received the shocking news that she had incurable kidney cancer which had spread to her lungs – the same diagnosis her husband Kevin had received in 2015.

It was then that Sharon returned to emotional support from St Helena and Mary visited her at home along with her Hospice community nurse specialist and SinglePoint went out a few times when she needed urgent help.

Sharon began immunotherapy every three weeks and target tablets daily, which have greatly helped her condition. While she was in a period of feeling well, she received an email from the Hospice about a new bereavement cafe and thought it sounded interesting. 

“I didn't know what to expect at all because I'm now five and a half years down the line from losing Kev, so didn’t know how this was going to go. As I was talking to various people, I thought I can actually offer these people something. My ears pricked up when one of the staff said they were looking for funding to run more cafes and the day after, I phoned in and said could I know more about the financial side of the sponsorship.”

The management team at Esion agreed straight away that sponsoring the bereavement cafes felt right for them given how close to home the Hospice was to them, and they generously decided to sponsor two cafes. Sharon explains:

“It's invaluable, talking with people who are experiencing a life changing loss; you feel less alone. The Hospice staff are knowledgeable and make a huge difference, and that’s where the bereavement cafes come into their own.”

“I feel that with all my sessions with Mary, I always had something positive to take away; how to deal with a birthday or a comment that somebody made - and some people say the most silliest things to you. I feel empowered by that and feel I can give something back to help these people that are in the place I was in five years ago.”

With all Sharon’s personal experience with St Helena Hospice, she is all in with her support and recognises the innovative ways the charity is helping itself through its profit with purpose commercial activities. Sharon has hired Total Clean in support of St Helena to regularly clean her business premises, knowing all the profit goes back into the charity to help more people like her and Kevin.

“When I think about the Hospice, I find it an amazing organisation and it makes me really cross as to how much money it has to raise itself. I think that the government and NHS are missing a trick that it could save them money and does save them money, but they need to give more support. The amount of money that is raised by the Hospice is absolutely amazing but shouldn't have to be like that.”

Sharon has now started planning for her future with mixed emotions, as she explains:

“The Hospice, that's where I want to end. I have a copy of the My Care Choices booklet but I haven't done it yet. When I was given it, I was like oh no, I can't think about that but I am now starting to think about my funeral. There are things about my life that other people won't know and how do they know what I want? When Kev died, I had no idea what music he would want, what he would want said, absolutely nothing, so I did my best for what I thought. 

“I've danced in the past and there are a couple of routines, particularly one I did at mine and Kev's wedding reception, so I've started making notes and there's one particular song, Pink, I'm Never Going To Not Dance Again, that's got to feature.

“I will be 65 in February so I started planning some things for the year; hot air balloons, I've always fancied doing that, and I’m going to Wimbledon.

“I'm one for ducks and by my side of my bed, I've got little ducks that people have given me and they're in a little row. When I was first ill, I felt they were all upside down, spinning around in circles, so my ducks have to be in a row.”

Story and images may not be published elsewhere without express permission from St Helena Hospice.