In her latest column, Jane Bradshaw, director of St Teresa’s Darlington and District Hospice Movement, looks ahead to an exciting 2011.

NEW Year means new beginnings, but for St Teresa’s Hospice we will also be marking an important anniversary.

It means looking back, taking stock, and celebrating the contributions and achievements of many local people.

Twenty-five years ago in February, people from across the area struggled through bad weather to a public meeting held at the Dolphin Centre to discuss starting a hospice movement in Darlington.

This gathering was attended by people who had been inspired by a letter suggesting there should be hospice care in Darlington and District, as in other parts of the country.

The letter was originally sent to the Evening Despatch by Yvonne Rowe, whose dear friend Mary Hester was suffering from cancer.

The meeting resulted in a steering committee being formed and people began fundraising. Darlington’s first volunteer-run hospice at home service had begun.

Since then, the hospice has added day and In-patient care, together with a raft of counselling, bereavement support and complementary therapies, all of which continue to be provided free of charge to patients and carers.

Many of those original supporters are still volunteers . It is an endorsement which I hope means we are continuing to realise their vision from 25 years ago.

If you were at that first meeting, please call 01325 254321 or email enquiries@darlingtonhospice.

org.uk.

We hope you join us this year in celebrating these achievements. Be on the lookout for events later in the year, which will culminate in January 2012 with the second ‘silver milestone’ when we will have been a formally registered charity for 25 years.

Happy New Year.