History of Wakefield Hospice
Wakefield Hospice is committed to providing the highest level of symptom management and care for people who have advanced active, progressive and life threatening illness. Find out below about the history of Wakefield Hospice.
The hospice belongs to the people of Wakefield and we are relying on them to keep it going
Former founder member

£10,000 Dream: £1M Reality


A public meeting was held on a miserable evening in November 1982, when the dream of opening a Hospice was first discussed in public. It was the brain child of a group of eight nursing sisters approaching retirement decided their area needed a Hospice. The eight who had all been friends since they all trained together at Clayton Hospital, Wakefield, decided to raise the money – they figured that around £10,000.00 should do it!

The people of Wakefield demonstrated a much appreciated commitment to the work of the hospice and this was reflected by the number of volunteers who helped raise funds tirelessly on a regular basis over many years and in a variety of inspirational ways.

The land was eventually provided by the then Regional Health Authority and very many people contributed their expertise and knowledge to the final design. The design was created by Peter Marshall an architect from York.

 
On April 2nd 1990, Wakefield Hospice accepted its first patients. It cost £920,000 to build, £60,000 to furnish and will cost around £450,000 a year to run and was described as “the cream of Hospices” by Martyn Lewis, the newscaster and author of ‘Tears and Smiles’ a book about Hospices.

The annual running costs of Wakefield Hospice are now between £3.9 million and £4.2 million. The Hospice belongs to the people of Wakefield and we are relying on them to keep it going.