Fiona is Team Lead for our hospice at home service, known as FNH@Home. As well as nursing patients with life-limiting illnesses, Fiona also makes elephants.
FNH@Home allows Fiona and her team to work in the community and with district nurses. She explains “I love being hands on, putting faces to names, going out into the community and seeing patients in their own homes. They’re so much more relaxed at home, we get the full picture of who they really are and get to know them and their lives, which is such a privilege.”
Often bereaved people keep clothes belonging to their loved ones and find it hard to let them go. Fiona is part of our project called “Elephant in the Room” which turns clothes into beautiful elephant keepsakes. The elephants are made from these clothes, carefully following a sewing pattern and using clothes such as shirts, dressing gowns, dresses and even ties.
Fiona has recently finished an elephant after Ann gave her a shirt, tie and hankie which had belonged to her husband John. Fiona finds sewing a great way to unwind, calling it her “chill-out time”. When she’s making the elephant, she can’t focus on anything else, and it helps her destress after her busy working day.
Fiona doesn’t rush and she makes each elephant over several weeks. It’s remarkable that Fiona cares for many people with life-limiting illnesses during the day, as well as organising her team of 17 nurses and carers and then in her spare time is creating something unique and comforting for bereaved people in Buckinghamshire.
The elephant that Fiona has made for Ann is a great comfort, as she remembers when John wore the blue striped shirt which is now part of the elephant. “I think he likes his new home,” Ann said.
