Festive cheer brought to Scottish palliative care charity

News release – 14 December 2016 – Scottish charity PATCH (Palliation and the Caring Hospital) has been filled with festive cheer following two generous donations totaling £5,000 from an Edinburgh based print consultant, The Dragonfly Agency.

Supporting the charity with its first ever Christmas card, the team at The Dragonfly Agency helped to raise over £1,500 by covering all production costs. The cards were sold right across Edinburgh, Borders and Tayside and almost sold out in two weeks! The design was created by artist Zaza Shelley who creates artwork in water colour and ink primarily.

Not content with that contribution, the Dragonfly team chose to donate a further £3,500 to help support the work of Patch in Scotland. With a great track record of supporting and working with charities across many different areas, the team at Dragonfly have all had direct or close experience with a friend or family member who has benefited from or needed palliative care.

The money raised from the donation and Christmas card sales will go towards supporting projects in Scotland/Borders to improve and enhance the palliative care provision in hospitals.

Dr Gordon Paterson, Director of PATCH commented: “As a board we were so delighted with the incredible generosity from Vicky and the Dragonfly Agency team. Not only with the underwriting of production of our very first and extremely high quality PATCH Christmas Cards, but also for the very, very generous monetary donation to support the work we do.

“Palliative care for patients and their loved ones can make such a difference during very challenging life events. It is not rocket science but does require true empathy and a set of basic skills and behaviours to complement clinical care. In various ways and through supporting a number of projects PATCH endeavours to make such care the norm. We believe that all patients and relatives need and deserve this, whatever the pressure on clinical services. With such donations we can continue to help ensure this happens.”

Victoria Grant, Founder and Director of The Dragonfly Agency said: “We were really so pleased to be able to support PATCH this year, and particularly with ensuring a perfect quality Christmas card was produced! As a team we are very passionate about the charities we donate to and this year it was a unanimous decision in favour of PATCH.

“The sad, but real, situation is that as a team we have all had loved ones, or friends’ loved ones who have needed palliative care, and either benefited hugely or didn’t have the chance to benefit. We believe that this should be something available to all who need it and therefore supporting such a charity makes real sense to us.”

PATCH recently funded a pilot project being carried out by the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine in Ninewells Hospital and NHS Tayside. The three organisations came together to develop and pilot a series of workshops to equip young healthcare professionals with the skills they need to have honest and open conversations with patients and their families about dying– particularly with those people whose needs might be better served by active palliation of their symptoms rather than other healthcare interventions. There are discussions about extending this pilot project to other hospitals across Scotland.