Save hospice music therapy service

The Towersey Foundation (A South Devon music therapy charity),  has through this campaign achieved  the immediate goal of saving the music therapy post at Rowcroft Hospice in South Devon. We raised £10,500 before the deadline of the 8th March.
This site will remain open however as we still have the longer term goal of raising enough to keep the post going until the hospice can take up the funding again. To do this we need approximately another £15,000. We will be reaching far and wide to find ways of doing this. In the mean time please continue to donate here to forward this campaign.
Music therapy plays a vital role as part of the palliative care team at the hospice, supporting the emotional and psychological needs of people with a terminal illness, as well supporting their family and friends.
For people struggling with a terminal illness and approaching the end of their life, music is there as a resource, a source of creativity and hope. The music therapist is a skilled professional who can help people to stay connected to the parts of themselves easily lost as their illness advances.
David Holmes is the current music therapist, he is a skilled professional who has worked at the hospice for 8 years.
 
Due to financial pressures the hospice cannot at present fund music therapy. Without an immediate injection of funds the post will be lost. We need to raise enough to keep it going to ensure that this important therapeutic work can continue.

We have set a target of £10.000; this will fund the post for 2 days a week for 7 months. We will campaign during this time to raise the additional funds to sustain the post for a further 18 months, at which point the hospice has expressed the intention of taking over the permanent funding once again. 

“Before discharge (from the hospice), I had a bedside visit from a music therapist who played the most delightful and soothing music. I was asked if I would like a home visit. ‘Oh yes please! Can we sing jolly songs?’ And we do! It’s one of the best hours, once a fortnight, when I lose myself, forget I struggle with walking and get oxygen into my lungs. What therapy!”

“My husband was admitted into Rowcroft 2015 and met the music therapist there. The therapist gave him such a focus and brought him back to life again. He looked forward to every session and thanks to the therapist rigging up a drum kit over the bed he was able to play. Not only that, there was a group session in which I played the flute which I hadn’t done for years. It was the only time I ever played with my husband”.
Some of the instruments in the music therapy room, most of them donated by patients or thier families. Each one tells a story. 

“My husband Alan had a great love of music but following his terminal diagnosis he was unable to find much pleasure in it, or indeed life itself. So to find a place where he could be encouraged to again enjoy music making with a like-minded person, within a caring environment was a wonderful discovery. The pleasure he gained from the sessions lasted way beyond just those days and enhanced his remaining months. Indeed, the music therapy gave Alan the confidence to once more, although ill, to perform in 2 concerts – one in aid of “Macmillan” and 1 in aid of Rowcroft.
Finally, David visited Alan in hospital and played for him while he was dying – what better farewell can there have been?”

We need your help to meet our target. As I write this we are 14 days in and 1/2 of our way to our target! Fantastic.
Susie and Bill Trevize in Stoke Gabrielle supporting our comapaign with their music last Sunday. 

With your generous donations the Towersey Foundation will ensure music therapy continues to be part of the palliative care support for the people of South Devon.

Please watch this marvelouse video with Bob Heath, beautifully describing the work at Sobel House Hospice in Oxford. 


For more information about the appeal and about the Towersey Foundation visit:           www.towerseyfoundation.org.uk