The team at Isabel Hospice provide palliative care which aims to improve the quality of life for people who are living with any life-limiting illness across eastern Hertfordshire. This may include cancer, motor neurone disease and other neurological conditions as well as end stage renal, heart or lung conditions. The aims of palliative care are to control pain and other symptoms and help patients and families to deal with emotional, spiritual or practical questions, which may arise from their illness. It is a whole person approach where the person is not defined by their illness.
The services at Isabel Hospice are completely without charge, meaning they’re available to anyone who needs to use them. Nobody should be left without care at the end of their life. This is only made possible by the ongoing support and kindness from the local community.
Local Hospice Lottery is a not-for-profit weekly lottery that helps provide hospices across Great Britain with a regular and sustainable income. In 2020 for each £1 entry in the weekly draw Local Hospice Lottery gave an average of 68p to hospice care – that’s substantially higher than other good cause lotteries, such as The National Lottery or The Health Lottery. Since 1997 Local Hospice Lottery has contributed in excess of £39 million to hospice care. You can play the Local Hospice Lottery in support of Isabel Hospice.
Prizes & odds of winning
How Proceeds are Spent and Odds of Winning
In 2020, £9.17 million was raised from ticket sales, with 3% spent on prizes, 12% spent on administration and management and 17% reinvested to recruit new lottery members. The remaining 68% was given to hospice care – an amazing total of £6.28 million. Based on estimated draw-entry numbers, the likelihood of winning a prize in the weekly draw is, on average, 1 in 960. Similarly, for our March & September Super Draws the likelihood of winning a prize is estimated at 1 in 1,175 and for our Xmas Super Draw is 1 in 4,335.
How winners are determined and prizes allocated
On joining you will be allocated a unique game number(s). Winning game numbers are selected from the unique game numbers of all players entering the draw by using licensed Random Number Generator (RNG) software. The player with the first game number randomly selected wins the £2,000 prize (or the £10,000 prize if a Super Draw). All other prizes are then allocated in the same sequence as the game numbers are drawn. As part of this process, the £1,000 prize in the regular weekly draw will either be won or rolled over to a maximum of £25,000.
John's Story
John is living with stage 4 prostate cancer and has, to make things easier for his family, planned and paid for his funeral, and is currently decorating his house, that he shares with his brother ‘so it can be sold when I pass on’ he explained. I knew about Isabel from when I was a carer for my Dad over 20 years ago. He had lung cancer and we had nurses coming to the house to help then. So, when my chemo and radiotherapy came to the end of the line, and I was told I had about 12 months. 14 months ago, Isabel was suggested to me I knew I would be in safe hands. Before the pandemic came along, my nurse, Sharon would visit me. Now we talk on the phone. We’ve talked together about the future and when I get more ill, and that’s how I came to plan my funeral, write my Will and pay for it all. My brother has done the same. He has been a complete strength for me, along with Sharon. Since completing my will, funeral and other plans for when I get more ill I have been able to focus on spending good happy times with my family.
When she visited she saw me struggling to get out of my armchair. I am very tall and my armchair was very low. She asked if I had considered a riser recliner to aid me to get out of a chair comfortably in a standing position. She helped source an all singing and dancing electric riser and recliner through the Hospice’s furniture shop in Hoddesdon for me to look at and I went and bought the riser recliner there. She arranged for it to be delivered, and it’s been a godsend. I have a history of mental illness in the family, I had a breakdown and so volunteered in a mental health charity for many years, so I knew all about these chairs. I used to pick up and collect furniture for them, and now it was coming to me.
Sharon has helped me with my cancer, but also with my mental health. She has pulled me through the rough times and has been the catalyst for my future care planning. I am very mindful of the strains on the NHS at the moment so I am trying to keep stable so I don’t overburden them.”
Why should I support Isabel Hospice?
The team at Isabel Hospice provide palliative care which aims to improve the quality of life for people who are living with any life-limiting illness across eastern Hertfordshire. This may include cancer, motor neurone disease and other neurological conditions as well as end stage renal, heart or lung conditions. The aims of palliative care are to control pain and other symptoms and help patients and families to deal with emotional, spiritual or practical questions, which may arise from their illness. It is a whole person approach where the person is not defined by their illness.
All of the Hospice’s care is given completely free of charge and it can be provided inside a patient’s own home by the Hospice at Home team, by the Living Well and community nursing teams online, or in the Hospice’s In-Patient Unit based in Welwyn Garden City.
Isabel Hospice relies heavily on donations from the local community to enable them to keep caring for those who need them. The cost of providing their essential services is currently budgeted at around £6.2 million per year which equates to £17,000 per day.
