Care at Christmas: 'I went into nursing to help people and I can do that here' says Severn Hospice ward sister

While they brighten up the room - like they do anywhere - these flowers are a bit different. They show just what Severn Hospice means to the people whose lives it has touched.

Glancing at the vase, Alison, who has been working at the charity's Bicton site in Shrewsbury for three years, says: "The flowers there, they are from the family of a lady who died in my first week here. You don't forget."

The flowers are a symbol of what the hospice means to those it helps - and the way the memories of the people it helps stay with the tight-knit team who work on the charity's eight-bed Perry Ward.

Charlotte Skelly, a sister on the ward, has been with Severn Hospice for five years as a nurse - and had previously been there as a student on placement from Chester.

She said: "I did a four-week placement, I thought I will go somewhere close to home and would like to try the hospice so I did four weeks here and I loved it - I cried on my way out when I had to leave after the four weeks finished."

That attachment to the charity is what comes through from everyone you meet at Bicton.

The Perry Ward is a specialist palliative care unit, along with the hospice's 11-bed unit at Apley in Telford.

Most of us won't visit a hospice until we need to - it's not the kind of place a lot of people 'drop in' to, or even consider visiting.

That means most people have no idea what to expect, and instead have a host of preconceptions about what they are going to find.

The reality certainly feels different to my expectations - and probably those for most people.

The setting is beautiful, isolated and peaceful, with all of the comfy rooms opening onto the kind of gardens you can stare at for hours.

The walls are dotted with beautiful pictures of the best of Shropshire, there are scores of thank-you cards pinned to the board in the main room, and uplifting artwork created by patients and their families to lift the mood.

The environment is so relaxing it is almost possible to lose sight of what it's there for.

The ward supports patients in a number of ways, providing end-of-life care - both medically and mentally.

Not that all of its patients die at the hospice: the aim is always, where people want to be at home, to do everything to allow them to get back to where they are comfortable and familiar.

Charlotte said: "A lot of the time the hospital will send people for end-of-life care and we can give them some TLC and they are more comfortable and they can actually go home."

She added: "It is about helping people live for as long as possible with the illness they have. If you can get someone better so they can get home for a birthday, a party, or whatever then that is what you want to do."

The ward is open to families and visitors 24 hours a day, and the team also works to do what they can to make people feel at home, with dogs and even cats frequent visitors - and more than once a horse.

Charlotte said: "We had a cat with a lady the other day that was in the bed, it was just hiding under the blanket with her."

Aside from medication and clinical requirements the team of around 30 also work to help provide some mental support, particularly through creative therapy delivered at Bicton by Val Blank - be it crafts, sudoku, or belting out numbers from popular musicals, they all help to distract, change the mood, and just enjoy something positive.

Charlotte said: "We had a 25-year-old in the other week and she made wonderful Christmas baubles and her family have been able to have those baubles for Christmas which is really lovely."

The central communal offers a chance for people to relax - be it watching TV, reading magazines, chatting, drifting off, or just staring out into the countryside.

Charlotte said: "Sometimes you will find relatives chatting to each other because they understand what each other are going through and that's really nice. People have made friendships here."

And it's not just relatives that make friends, as Charlotte explains: "I have been walking up on Haughmond Hill and I have seen people and stopped and talked for an hour - it's lovely."

The importance of the job, the 'responsibility' and 'privilege' are the words that ring through from staff as they describe their dedication to doing everything they can for their patients and their families.

Charlotte said: "The end is just as important as the beginning and if you can get it right, you have done everything right - what a lovely thing to do.

"If you have done everything so you can get that person fully comfortable so they are relaxed, in peace - I don't think you can do anything better than that."

She added: "People say it is a privilege and it sounds like you're just saying it but none of us say that lightly.

"I went into nursing to help people and I can do that here, not just the patients but their relatives as well."

To learn more about how you can support Severn Hospice's work, visit severnhospice.org.uk/support-us or call 01743 236565.