For many of our patients and their carers, our Outpatient and Community Services are a vital part of their life and their ability to cope with their life-limiting condition. During these difficult times, our Outpatient and Compassionate Lanarkshire teams are continuing to provide telephone support. However, we would like to show them that we are still thinking of them on a daily basis. That’s where we need your help!

Can you crochet, knit or sew? If so, we’d love you to make us some ‘Hospice Hearts’. The idea is you make two identical hearts – one we’ll send to the patient or carer with a wee note reminding them we are thinking of them and the other one to hang on our Hospice Heart Tree in our Reception so that everyone passing is reminded of all our vulnerable patients at home.

The number and frequency of visits to patients in our Inpatient Unit is also limited at the moment, so we will make the hearts available to our inpatients too, which may bring some level of connection and comfort at this time.

So how can you help?

We have a pattern which you can download here.

There are some important rules that you will need to adhere to for health and safety purposes:

1) Make sure the yarn is clean

2) Once the hearts are complete, please seal them in whatever way you can i.e. zip lock bags, freezer bags with a seal, a bin liner sealed with tape etc.

3) We can only display the hearts after 72 hours to ensure they are safe so please date the hearts after they’ve been sealed so we know when the 72 hours have elapsed.

4) Stay safe everyone and if you’re worried about doing this then please don’t. Your support is still appreciated.

5) Please post them to: Wendy Cowper, St Andrew’s Hospice, Henderson Street, Airdrie, ML6 6DJ

If you can’t crochet, knit or sew, would you consider supporting the campaign by donating £1 to cover the postage costs of sending the hearts to our patients and carers?