PHYLLIS Tuckwell Hospice Care has launched its Christmas appeal, which this year focuses on the doctors and nurses who will be caring for patients and their families on Christmas Day.

The Christmas Angels Appeal features Jean, one of 20 nurses who will be working on the hospice’s in-patient unit (IPU) this Christmas.

The IPU provides supportive and end-of-life care for patients in the last weeks and days of their lives, as well as providing respite care for others, who then return home once their pain has been controlled.

As well as working on the IPU this Christmas, Phyllis Tuckwell staff will also visit patients who have chosen to spend Christmas at home, supporting them and their families over the festive season.

“I am sure you know how wonderful your staff are,” said the relative of one patient, recently, “but believe me, they are angels in disguise. I don’t know what we would have done without them.”

Phyllis Tuckwell is asking for support this Christmas, to enable it to continue providing its outstanding care for patients and families at the most difficult of times.

Every day – including Christmas Day - it supports more than 250 patients and relatives. But as the NHS only covers 20 per cent of its costs, it has to raise more than £15,000 a day to do this.

It costs £16,178 to care for patients in the hospice’s in-patient unit over Christmas Day and Boxing Day - but even small donations can make a big difference.

Just £10 can pay for a Christmas stocking filled with treats for one of the hospice’s patients, while £20 would cover Christmas dinner for a patient and visitor on Christmas day.

£260 would pay for a nurse to care for patients and their families on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and £755 would keep the whole hospice open for an hour over the festive season.

Help Phyllis Tuckwell’s angels to care for patients and their families this Christmas. Visit www.pth.org.uk/Christmas to make a donation, or text ANGEL to 70300 to donate £5.