At East Lancashire Hospice we support the people of Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley to make the most of life.  We believe that everyone has the right to live as well as possible and be cared for with dignity and respect until it is their time to die.

We understand that people have their own thoughts and wishes around their end of life and we encourage everyone to talk about dying and share their wishes with their loved ones. As part of this we actively encourage patients to write an Advanced Care Plan.

As a hospice we follow the hospice and palliative care ethos as defined by the World Health Organisation that it ‘intends neither to hasten nor postpone death, affirms life, and recognises dying as a natural process.’

Understandably assisted dying is an emotive topic and is one which has recently gathered pace in the media, and we recognise that there will be strong opinions on this. At East Lancashire Hospice we respect and acknowledge those views and hold no judgement for those who support it, those who request it or those that oppose it. Those views will not prevent anyone from accessing our services and will not change how we care for them.

We will continue to focus on the right of every individual to have access to palliative and end of life care, and that those in our community know about the range of services and support we offer. We will encourage people to talk about death and dying in order to normalise what is a natural part of life and ensure that our community are able to access our services should they choose to do so.