Telford woman battling stage four cancer raises £2,000 from hospice bed

Carla Lea from Telford decided to raise money for the Severn Hospice while receiving care on the Apley Ward in Telford earlier this year.

The wife, mum and step-mum blogs about living with ovarian cancer to tens of thousands of readers, used the platform to promote her birthday Facebook fundraiser.

She chose Severn Hospice to thank them for caring for her for two weeks after she said she was admitted in so much pain she could not remember anything apart from wanting to die.

Carla blogs at cancernursetopatient.home.blog/ about her experiences since being diagnosed. She is also still running an online fundraiser at https://bit.ly/33TG5YT

Carla was later discharged from the hospice with a planned trip to the seaside and the message of positivity in the face of incurable illness.

She said: “Kindness and compassion is what makes hospice care. I can’t believe the amazing work that the volunteers and staff do here and I wanted to give back and say thank you for everything they did.

“Everyone becomes part of your little family, and they make and take the time to care properly and make a difference.

“What I think is really special about Severn Hospice is they not only care for you, they support your loved ones too, and that service doesn’t stop if something happens to you.

“As a charity the hospice has to raise the funds to provide care; it is powered by volunteers, fundraisers and love.

"I think fundraising is dead easy, especially nowadays with social media. Even if you raise £100 it pays for something, doesn't it?

"They can't do enough for you.

"It's 24 hours visiting. If Wes wanted to see me he could. At some nights when Wes couldn't sleep he might come back at 11 o'clock at night.

"It didn't matter, they didn't care, they always welcomed you in. It was never like you're a nuisance or a pain."

Carla's devoted husband Wes said: "It's a shame they rely so much on donations, it's a massive thing."

Apley ward sister, Mandy Reynolds, said: “We could not be more grateful to Carla for her fundraising efforts, especially while she was so ill.

“We have to raise £2 of every £3 we spend and many people are touched by our care and decide to raise funds, donate goods or volunteer their time to say thank you.

“Every effort means we can continue to provide support to other families in Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire and Mid Wales.”