Paul's Story

Paul and his wife Barbara, who is also Paul’s carer, attend Airedale Outreach on a weekly basis. Paul has also spent some time on our Incare ward and receives complementarytherapies at the Hospice. We caught up with Paul and Barbara at our recent Outreach beach themed day and found out all about the care he has received and how it has helped him. 

Paul has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and secondary bone cancer on the spine, his illness has lead to difficulty with mobility and he can’t walk very far. Paul’s wife, Barbara, told us that it got to the point where just after Christmas, Paul couldn’t even get out of bed because the pain was so bad.

Paul was initially admitted to Pinderfields hospital and then was transferred to Incare at The Prince of Wales Hospice where he was with us for a fortnight for pain and symptom management.

When asked about their reaction to coming to the Hospice, Barbara said; “When the Hospice was first mentioned to us it was a shock because in our minds the last time we had any connections with a Hospice was that it’s a place you go to die, but we stopped calling it a Hospice for those couple of days and it was just brilliant.”  

Paul feels that he got a better level of care at the Hospice. His wife Barbara said she imagined the Hospice was what it would be like in private healthcare because the treatment Paul received was so different to anything they had experienced before.

Once Paul was discharged from Incare, Outreach was recommended, which his Macmillan nurse, Sonia, kept mentioning. However Paul told us that him and Barbara were reluctant to make the move as it was winter at the time and he had become used to not going out. 

Barbara told us; “It wasn’t until another nurse took over, we only saw her for a couple of visits, again she said about Outreach and this was a Tuesday, I said we could go tomorrow then, she said yes so I said ok, she said right I’ll ring you up on Friday to see how you got on and that made us go." 

Paul now goes to Outreach every week, which he’s been attending since May. He said that the first few weeks were hard getting up and going. During the winter months, Barbara said that her and Paul were not seeing many people apart from Nurses, Macmillan and GP’s so it’s nice to see other people at Outreach.

When asked what activities Paul enjoys at Outreach he said; “I do painting because I used to do painting by numbers and when I got too bad I just couldn’t be bothered. Now I go painting on a Wednesday and I get home and paint, it’s got me back into painting again.”

Paul also has complementary therapy treatment at the Hospice, which includes Reiki, his wife Barbara also has massages, usually back and shoulders as she suffers with Arthritis.  

Paul wasn’t sure when he first had Reiki, he said sometimes when you go out you feel like you’ve been on the drink. He went on to say it’s helped him to relax, as well as helping him with his anxiety as he used to shake a lot. Paul believes the complementary therapy has helped him to deal with this, as it doesn’t happen much now at all. 

When speaking about the Hospice and what it’s done for Paul, Barbara said; “It’s different now to what it used to be, a lot of people go in for treatment and they go home. People who haven’t had any dealings with hospices just don’t realise what they do today.

His medication was changed when he was in the Hospice and we started going to Outreach and he’s started having infusion treatment for the bones. He’s completely different to what he was before he came to the Hospice or had any dealings."