Plea to help Yorkshire hospice charity delivering end of life care in the West Bank as Israel-Gaza war pushes it to brink of collapse

The Bethlehem Care & Hospice Trust, based in Sheffield, runs palliative care services in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The charity, which counts former speaker Baroness Rosie Winterton, a head of NATO, and a Cardinal among its patrons and trustees, is now in a "critical" situation. Caring for people of all faiths and ages, it is appealing for support to help it survive as trustees warn teams are "stretched to breaking point".

Prof Phil Hopkins, director of the Leeds Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences and one of the UK's most experienced anaesthetists, is board chairman.

"People are suffering," he said. "Without us palliative care would just collapse in the West Bank. We are desperate for people to support what we're doing. We are reaching out to people who have experience of hospice care, through their own family perhaps, and who know how irreplaceable it is."

The charity was launched by a group of people from Sheffield, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land a decade ago, who were struck by conditions at a Bethlehem centre for the elderly. On their return they raised around £200,000 towards hospice care.

At the same time Prof Hopkins, on his own visit to Bethlehem, was also working on research around a potential new hospice. What he found instead was that funding a model of care, delivered in the community rather than through an expensive new hospice building, could help more people much quicker.

By 2022 teams were able to travel to Palestine to secure registrations and licences, funding training in Jordan for the area's only palliative care. But within weeks of launching, the Israel-Gaza war broke out. Suddenly there were roadblocks, more travel restrictions, and with painkillers and medical essentials spiking in price.

Despite this, teams carried out over 1,400 patient visits last year. Their youngest patient is just two-years-old, while their oldest is 85.

The charity is now operating at 150 per cent capacity, with nurses even delivering chemotherapy treatments as patients' families are denied travel permits in war.

"Everything they need is more difficult to get," said Prof Hopkins. "Everything is more expensive to buy. We are only talking about the essentials. It's painkillers, for patients with incurable cancer. Simple dressings. To give people dignity, and to enable them to live a life - even though theirs may sadly be too brief."

The charity is now reaching out to people who can make regular donations, no matter how small, or Yorkshire companies that can help fund support. People who can help practically, from marketing to hospice nursing care, are also sought. To find out more, visit bethlehemcareandhospicetrust.org.

"We know what we've started has achieved so much," said Prof Hopkins. "We've implemented something unique, in an area that is in everybody's minds daily. But it's a story of the ordinary for them - life and death carries on. We need to keep this going."

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