A HOSPICE in St Asaph has been adopted as a charity by an engineering company after staff voted to support it.

St Kentigern Hospice, which serves Denbighshire, eastern Conwy and western Flintshire, was chosen by Continental Diamond Tool Ltd (CDT) because of the “wonderful care” it has shown for relatives of team members.

This includes both parents of engraver and dispatch officer, Helen Turberville.

The company, which supplies sophisticated parts for production machinery for Rolls-Royce and other aerospace companies, has made its first donation to the charity, with Helen presenting a cheque for £1,000 at the hospice.

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The donation was made to mark the 40th anniversary of the specialist firm – one of only two of its kind in the UK -  which employs 40 staff at its factory on the Tir Llwyd Industrial Estate in Kinmel Bay.

Helen said: “My parents, Maureen and Ted Felton, from Kinmel Bay, were both here and the care and support the hospice gave was a great comfort to them and to us as a family.

“My mum used to come to the day centre here and made many things I still have at home including a tie-dyed silk scarf.

“Then she was a resident here and was struggling with her mobility and they helped her a lot before she passed away here.

“My dad was in hospital in Liverpool and I asked for him to be moved to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and they said he only had a matter of days so I requested that he come to St Kentigernand the staff here managed to get him in.

“He knew we were trying to get him here because on one of his good days we managed to tell him and it meant a lot to all of us as a family.

“St Kentigern is a wonderful place and my mum made a lot of friends here. It’s very comforting here and I’m delighted that CDT are supporting it.”

The hospice has been extended to 12 beds from eight, but also provides extensive day care and respite services, as well as wide range of therapies.

In the last 12 months, more than  600 people from across the area have used its services.

It costs £3 million a year to run St Kentigern, with three-quarters of that raised by the Income Generation Team, whose fundraisers are working on one of the year’s major events, the Twilight Trek which takes place on Saturday, June 29.

They also provide a Wish Ambulance which aims to make the final wishes of its residents come true and they have included a lady in her 30s who wanted to spend a final couple of hours in her own home.

Another patient wanted to see a fireworks display for the last time and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute came in to stage a show

Advanced nurse practitioner Becky McNay joined St Kentigern four years ago.

She said: “It’s been amazing, I’ve really loved it. It’s such a rewarding place to work.

“The ethos of the hospice is about providing holistic care and focusing on the patient’s wishes, like goal setting as opposed to focusing on their disease.

“I really enjoy the one to one care and the privilege of having time to spend with patients and their families – you just wouldn’t get the same amount of time in an acute ward of a hospital.”