When Nancy lost her mum, Jeannie, in November 2025, she wanted to find a meaningful way to say thank you.
Jeannie had spent her whole life caring for other people. She was an intensive care nurse, a mum of four and a much-loved grandmother, the person whom family, friends and even strangers could always rely on.
“She was just so giving,” Nancy says. “She put everybody before herself, her kids, her friends. She was always so busy caring about everybody else and what everyone else needed. It was crazy, in an amazing way.”
After Jeannie passed away at Community Hospice, Nancy and her family set up a fundraising page in her memory. Instead of flowers at her funeral, they invited people to donate to the hospice that had cared for Jeannie and supported the whole family in her final days.
Together, they raised just shy of £7,500. Just from personal donations and no sponsored events involved, quite remarkable.
Now, Nancy is taking that connection a step further by becoming a Compassionate Neighbour, offering companionship and support to local people who may be living with illness, loneliness or bereavement.
For Nancy, it is a way of keeping her mum close.
“What I like is how doing ‘mum stuff’, as me and my sister call it, makes me feel that bit more connected to mum when I miss her the most,” she says. “It keeps a part of them in your life still. It fills a small part of that gap that’s never going to be filled.”
Nancy“What I like is how doing ‘mum stuff’, as me and my sister call it, makes me feel that bit more connected to mum when I miss her the most,”
A nurse who never stopped caring
Caring for people wasn’t simply Jeannie’s job; it was at the centre of who she was.
Even when cancer treatment eventually meant she had to take medical retirement, Jeannie still looked for ways to help others. Leaving nursing was especially hard because it was not a choice that Jeannie made; her job was taken away from her.
“She always felt like she lost a bit of her spark when her job was taken away from her,” Nancy says. “It wasn’t her choice not to work; she still wanted to.”
Despite her own health challenges, Jeannie remained determined to be present for the people she loved.
“She’d have to be so, so poorly not to come,” Nancy says.
“She was there for her children and grandchildren, helped friends whenever she could and continued making new friends at the hospice,” Nancy remembers. Even while undergoing treatment herself, Jeannie supported a friend who used a wheelchair, helping to take her out and make sure she could enjoy life too. That was simply who Jeannie was; someone who never stopped thinking of others.
A sudden change
In October 2025, everything changed very quickly.
Jeannie had lived with and overcome cancer before, but her family noticed a sudden change in her behaviour. Within days, she was admitted to King’s College Hospital, where scans revealed a cancerous tumour on her brain.
The decline was rapid and heartbreaking.
Jeannie had always been clear about what she wanted if her illness returned. She had previously considered stopping treatment but chose to continue because she wanted more time with her family.
“She did it for us, to be here for us,” Nancy says. Jeannie had a stem cell transplant, then, sometime later, CAR T cell therapy. Both were long, arduous and very harsh treatments. “To watch someone you love going through both is so, so tough,” Nancy explains.
When conversations about further treatment began, Jeannie found her own way to make her wishes known. Although she could no longer speak properly, she typed a note on her phone asking to go to the hospice.
“That’s when we thought, why didn’t we think of that?” Nancy says.
More than a patient
At first, Nancy and her family did not know what to expect from hospice care.
“I still expected it to be much more like a hospital,” she says.
But the moment they arrived at Community Hospice, they realised it was something very different.
“It felt like it wasn’t just mum that was involved. It felt like everybody was involved.”
The family had not left Jeannie since she was admitted to Kings. So, when staff asked them to wait while they helped settle her into her room, they felt anxious.
“We didn’t want to leave her side.”
But when they were invited in, they could immediately see a change.
“We went in, and she looked so comfortable.”
The small, thoughtful details meant a great deal. One of the first things staff did was offer Jeannie mouth care, bringing her comfort after several days without eating or drinking.
“My mum grabbed hold of it in her mouth and was sucking on it so hard, like a baby to a bottle,” Nancy says.
For Nancy, it showed the extraordinary compassion and attention that shaped every part of Jeannie’s care.
“I think the difference in the care is insane.”
The family were also struck by the way the hospice helped people remain themselves. Staff wanted to know Jeannie as a person, not only as someone who was ill.
“They asked many questions: ‘What is mum's favourite drink? Does she like alcohol? Do you have any pets?’” Nancy says. “They said if she felt up to wanting some fresh air, to let them know and a few of them would come in and wheel her out into the gardens.”
“The fact that you could sit drinking a vodka if you wanted to, and have your dog come and sit next to you, you just never, in a million years, would think that would be an option.”
Nancy“It was the first time we’d all actually properly laughed.”
A final gift
In Jeannie’s final days, there were moments that gave the family a precious glimpse of her again.
After being incredibly unwell, she suddenly perked up when Nancy’s sister Polly came back into the room with a can of Coke Zero. Jeannie made it clear that she wanted some, drank through a straw, and she took a big, long drink.
Knowing how much their mum loved sweets, the family offered her some too.
“My mum loved a sweet,” Nancy says.
For a little while, Jeannie smiled, communicated and told her family that she loved them. On 11th November 2025, surrounded by the people closest to her, Jeannie passed away.
Nancy remembers sitting together with her three siblings when one of her brothers accidentally broke a chair. In the middle of such a difficult day, they all began to laugh.
“It was the first time we’d all actually properly laughed.”
Then Jeannie’s breathing changed. At that moment, Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher came on the radio.
“It just came on and, out of nowhere, Mum passed,” Nancy says.
Nancy“It was a lovely way for her to go."
The moment when Nancy's brother accidentally broke a chair, making the whole family laugh, before Jeannie eventually passed.
Giving back
The family’s gratitude led them to set up a JustGiving page in Jeannie’s memory. They were overwhelmed by the response from friends, family, colleagues and strangers who had simply heard Jeannie’s story.
“We had so many donations. It was constant,” Nancy says. “It was a really amazing amount of money from one JustGiving page.”
For Nancy, the fundraising was about more than raising vital funds. It was a way to honour her mum and to help make sure other families can receive the same extraordinary care.
“When you see how amazing the hospice is and know that 70% of the funding for that care comes from donations, it makes you want to do whatever you can to support it.”
It has also helped her live with the reality of losing her mum.
“Ongoing, I feel like I’ve got this big empty space without my mum,” she says.
Nancy“I think being able to do something for her, or to honour her, helps me.”
Looking forward
Inspired by the kindness her family received, Nancy has now applied to become a Compassionate Neighbour.
With two young children and a busy family life, she needed something that could fit around her responsibilities. When Nancy discovered that she could become a Compassionate Neighbour, it felt like the right way to give something back.
“Thinking of how sad it was watching my mum go through what she went through, and then thinking there are people who go through that without anyone, I think it’s so, so sad.”
Nancy believes even the smallest kind act can mean the world. Sharing a conversation, making someone laugh, passing them a drink or simply just being there.
“To have someone there for no reason, not just popping in to give you medication, I think that means a lot.”
She knows Jeannie would have loved the idea.
“I think my mum would really like that.”
Through fundraising, volunteering and what Nancy and her sister call “doing mum stuff”, Nancy is honouring Jeannie's memory by helping others feel cared for, supported and valued, just as Jeannie always made people feel.
Nancy is helping more local people and families receive the care, comfort and support that meant so much to her family.
