Wendy, from Stocksfield, knows only too well what a lifeline Tynedale Hospice at Home’s Hospital Transport Service is. Nine years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and used the service every day for six weeks while she underwent radiotherapy treatment.
“No one was more surprised than me when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was only 60, still working and enjoying life, and it really was a bolt from the blue,” Wendy explained. “But once I had had a chance for the news to sink in my thoughts turned to the treatment I was facing and what I had to do to get well again.
“It was only when the doctor told me I would need to attend the hospital every day Monday to Friday for six weeks that I started thinking about the practical implications of how my diagnosis would affect me – up until that time it was my worries were mainly around the physical impact. My husband Eddie was working full time at the time and wasn’t able to take me every day. Of course, I have friends nearby who, while they would have been more than happy to help, were all working themselves. How I was going to make the appointments became quite a worry and the last thing I wanted to have to think about with everything that was going on.”