International health campaigner Chris Pointon visits Nottingham | Latest news

International health campaigner Chris Pointon visits Nottingham

International health campaigner Chris Pointon visited Nottingham this week to raise awareness of the importance of talking about end of life and to share his story of his wife’s death and ongoing legacy.

Chris, co-founder of the #hellomynameis campaign and husband of the late Dr Kate Granger MBE, visited Nottingham during Dying Matters Awareness Week (13-19 May), which aims to support people to talk openly about dying, death and bereavement.

During a hospital stay, when Kate was terminally ill with cancer and experiencing the NHS through the eyes of a patient, she noticed that some staff didn’t introduce themselves and the negative impact this had on her care.  Kate and Chris decided to do something about it and launched the #hellomynameis campaign to remind healthcare staff about the importance of introductions. This campaign quickly grew and Chris has continued to spread the word since Kate’s death in 2016 and is now used widely across the NHS and in healthcare organisations globally.

The theme for this year’s Dying Matters campaign is Are We Ready, and looks at the practical and emotional steps we all need to take to be ready for the end of our lives. Opinion polls show that only about a third of people have written a will or thought about their funeral, and even fewer have thought about their end of life care, or made a decision about organ donation.

Chris Pointon was the guest speaker at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust’s (NUH) annual Dying Matters Conference which was held earlier this week. He said: “I was honoured to talk to about end of life and to share my story with the wonderful staff at NUH. It was also an honour to host the ‘#hellomynameis play that received a standing ovation of over 230 people!”

Sarah Freer, Assistant Divisional Nurse and End of Life Care lead at NUH, said: “Conversations with patients and families around end of life care are everyone’s responsibility. Only by having these conversations can we begin to understand what patients want to happen to them at the end of life.”

NUH was praised in its latest Care Quality inspection, published earlier this year, for its ‘outstanding’ end of life care.

Dying Matters is run by national hospice and palliative care charity Hospice UK, and brings together a broad coalition of organisations related to dying and bereavement, such as hospices, solicitors, funeral directors and grief support services.

Tracey Bleakley, Chief Executive of Hospice UK, said: “It’s always amazing to see the creativity and imagination that people bring to their Dying Matters events. I hope many people will take advantage of this chance to talk about a difficult topic in a friendly and supportive way. It isn’t easy to talk about death, but it’s important that we all do.”

For more information about the work at NUH to improve end of life care for patients, visit: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/end-of-life-care-swan

For more information about the Hellomynameis campaign visit https://www.hellomynameis.org.uk/

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