When Polly received news of husband Andy Jones’ incurable diagnosis of Glioblastoma in April 2023, she said “everything quickly became a blur”. The experience brought deep worries of arranging his care and the thought of family life without him became a daunting one, but at the time they needed it most, Isabel Hospice was there.

Polly and her family were first connected to Isabel Hospice for counselling support, following Andy’s diagnosis in April 2023, and his referral from the GP in early May.  Polly said “I got counselling very soon after Andy was diagnosed. I knew it was going to be difficult but I’m a real believer in talking about your feelings”. Ever since, Polly has been attending weekly sessions. Her children received counseling through Isabel Hospice in November 2023, a few months before their father’s death.

Before his diagnosis, Andy owned Power Fit, an outdoor fitness business. He loved to canoe and camp and was an established mountain leader. When he wasn’t guiding adventure weekends in locations like the Lake District, he would be running outdoor training sessions, come rain or shine.

Polly explains that Andy was just as devoted to fitness as he was to being a family man and had the goal of staying healthy following his experience of his own father’s death. Polly said, “Andy was diagnosed at 57, which hit him really hard”. “His dad died at 58 from a heart problem so he dedicated his life to fitness to try and stop himself dying at the same age, but the Glioblastoma got him within nine months [of his diagnosis] which is awful. He was incredibly fit and healthy and would be the last person you’d expect to get ill.”

To divert his attention from his diagnosis, Andy wanted to keep himself engaged and focused on his love for fitness and began taking part in physical challenges.

Taking on the Three Peaks virtual climbing challenge, Andy conquered the equivalent of Snowdon, Scafell Pike, and Ben Nevis (a whopping 3,408m and 2,098 flights of stairs), in the comfort of his own home, something that Polly described to be “absolutely bonkers”.

“He started climbing the equivalent of the height of the Three Peaks up and down on our staircase. He would wear a harness and a rope on a belay with someone standing at the bottom of the stairs, so we could be there if he slipped,” she says. “I just thought it was absolute lunacy, but he did it!”

During this challenge, Andy raised £31,387 for Teens Unite Fighting Cancer, which Polly says he had hoped would “inspire young people who were also living with incurable cancers”.

On December 11th, 2023, Andy moved on to start a virtual biking challenge that would encourage him to cycle the equivalent distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats (a staggering 1913km) on a stationary bike in the garage of his family home.

It was during this challenge that Andy was admitted into the In-Patient Unit (IPU) after his condition worsened. The admission relieved Andy’s family from the complexity and pressure that came with looking after him at home and offered him pain management and relief from some of his most challenging symptoms. Polly said “We couldn’t move him around and getting him to the toilet was really difficult. He kept being sick and he wasn’t able to enjoy his food but when he went into the IPU, they got his sickness under control and he could enjoy his food again. It was easier to move him around and was much less stressful than at home, which made space for us to sit and chat or just watch films together.”

Unaware of how hospices worked, Polly was unsure of what to expect, but there was one moment that she pinpointed which helped her realize that Andy was in the right place to receive his care.

She said “I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never been in a hospice before in my life. I remember posting on Facebook that I was sitting in the IPU drinking a Pimm’s, which is definitely a sentence I never thought I would say. I just loved how relaxed it was, there were no visiting hours, me and the kids were allowed to come and go as we pleased and that was really helpful.”

“Although Andy didn’t really know he was in the hospice, he certainly enjoyed the interactions and banter that he had with the nurses. He also enjoyed the food when he was well enough to eat, he particularly loved the jelly and ice cream that they would make for him.”

Recognising these personal touches as a privilege that families with loved ones in hospitals don’t get to experience, Polly described that it was moments like these that allowed them to “focus on being a family”. “They put him in a lovely big room because they knew he’d have a lot of visitors and that we’d want to stay with him as much as we could. Our eldest, Luella stayed with him overnight as much as she possible could. He wasn’t on his own once, we always had one, two or even three friends or family members with him.”

“In hospitals you can’t have anybody stay for very long, but it didn’t feel like that here, there weren’t many rules, and you don’t want to be told what to do at the end of your life.” she says.

Reflecting back fondly, Polly expresses how fortunate her, and the family were to have had these special moments with Andy and praises the team in In-Patient Unit for the experiences that they were able to make possible during his 30-night-stay.

Polly said “We were encouraged by the nurses to do a film night, so I brought a projector in, and we watched The Jungle Book, which was his favourite Disney film. It was kind of perfect because that ended up being his last night.”

“I think when someone you love is incurably ill and there’s so much to do and worry about, you can’t usually come up with these ideas, so it was great that the team encouraged it, because now we’ve got those memories forever.”

Not only did the In-Patient Unit team make the day-to-day activities less stressful and less abnormal for Polly and her family when visiting Andy, they also went above and beyond to ensure that the more meaningful needs of Andy’s were met – like his desire to have one last party.

Polly said “Andy’s sister, Cathy, organised a lovely party for him a few days before he died, which was something he’d always wanted. It was wonderfully done.”

“My husband loved to party, obviously he couldn’t party like normal, but he was tapping his feet to the music and having a go on the drums. He was really able to be a version of himself.” she says.

Adding to the musical atmosphere of the party was a professional bagpiper, who had been invited by Andy’s sister after he had expressed his love for the Scottish instrument.

Polly said “It was brilliant and really moving. The nurses told us how another patient had woken up and responded to the pipes and that he hadn’t responded to anything in days. It was just so special.”

Polly said “I went to meet him, he spoke Japanese and I have Japanese in my family, and I speak a few phrases, so we were able to communicate. It was really emotional, but so lovely at the same time. It was one of those unique moments in life where you stop and look around and you think this is what it’s all about.”

Just a few days later on the 28th of January 2024, Andy died peacefully at our In-Patient Unit, surrounded by his loved ones.

Reflecting back on her time and experience with Isabel Hospice, Polly said, “Thank you from the bottom of mine and the girls’ hearts for looking after my husband and their daddy with such tenderness at the end of his life. You made the most terrible time a little easier for us all and we will keep the little craft bits that we did with him in the hospice forever.”