Madam,

I often read letters in your paper from people who want to share their experiences and say a public thank you for the care they or their relatives have received from Bronglais Hospital staff.

More often than not these are stories with a happy ending, and I would certainly want to endorse their praise for all the people at Bronglais who do their utmost to get people well again.

From his cancer diagnosis in 2012 until he died this year in May my husband was treated by the oncology team in Bronglais and had a couple of spells in hospital.

Although he was always full of praise for everyone concerned with his care, he really didn’t like being in hospital and when we realised that he was not going to recover he decided that he would not go into hospital again.

We were reassured that this would not be a problem and so it turned out. The practical assistance and moral support we received from the combination of hospital-based and community-based services was both faultless and seamless.

We had every imaginable piece of equipment delivered immediately via the palliative care team; Dr Gokul the palliative care consultant came to our house with one of the MacMillan nurses and talked to us for over an hour, listening and thinking, and planning how best to manage my husband’s symptoms.

Our GP from Aberaeron was always available either to visit or to talk to us on the phone and the community nurses were almost a permanent fixture in our house.

The MacMillan nurses were also easy to contact by phone and could always speak quickly to whomever could best address any queries or requests.

The carers, whom we actually only needed for the last few days, were very experienced, skillful and worth a lot more than they get paid.

Neither of us ever felt anxious as even in the middle of the night the Acute Response Team or the out-of hours doctor were only a phone call away.

I know that we have these people to thank for the calm and peaceful last few weeks that we spent together, with my husband able to be with his family and his dog, to see his garden from the window watching the leaves unfurl on the oak tree, to talk, sleep or just to sit and hold someone’s hand as the time to say goodbye approached. Thanks all of you.

I would like to add that my husband believed strongly, as do I, that people who are dying should have a choice, if they wish, about when death should occur.

If that choice had been available it would not have altered the way we approached his death but I know to the second the moment when he would have asked for his life to end.

Yours etc,

Jane McManus,

Address supplied.

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