A FORMER matron at a leading North West cancer hospital has joined the management team at Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham.

Mandy Cunningham has been appointed as the hospice's new head of clinical services and patient care.

She has previously worked at leading North West cancer hospitals, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre on the Wirral and The Christie in Manchester.

Mandy, who lives on the Wirral with her husband Chris, always had an ambition to work in nursing, starting out as a community bath nurse in Chester, before moving on to become an auxiliary nurse and then starting her formal nurse training at the University of Chester.

Palliative care

She said: "I enjoyed palliative care in the community so I knew I wanted to specialise in oncology. During my time at Clatterbridge I was a chemotherapy nurse and became a ward manager before I moved over to Christie to be matron of acute oncology.

“As soon as I walked into Nightingale House I felt it was a very inspirational place. I am always looking to see how things can be improved and I am optimistic we can bring about positive change and improved services for those in our catchment area living with life-limiting illnesses.”

Mandy has two children - son Steven, who is married to Stacey - and daughter Abbie, as well as two grandchildren.

She recently introduced a new respite care service as part of a four-week rolling programme. Patients can be offered between four and seven days respite in the hospice, to give families an opportunity to take a break knowing their loved ones are being cared for at Nightingale House, whilst being able to facilitate those patients who may need urgent admission on to the ward.

Mandy added: “When patients and their families are given advanced notice of respite care they are able to make plans, particularly if they need to get away or re-charge their batteries at home, away from the responsibilities of being the primary carer.”

Hospice fundraising 

Nightingale House looks after patients and their families from Wrexham, Flintshire and East Denbighshire across to Barmouth and the border towns including Oswestry and Whitchurch.

The service provided is completely free-of-charge, with the majority of their running costs met through fundraising and other channels of income generation that includes its on-site café and retail outlets that make a significant contribution towards maintaining services for those with life-limiting illnesses within palliative care.

It costs £3,639,801 each year to run Nightingale House Hospice.

That’s equivalent to:

• £303,317 per month

• £69,996 per week

• £9,972 per day