Judge: “Forty years as a hospice volunteer? How do you plead?”

Jane Mansell: “Guilty, your honour!”

Just… WOW! For a formidable forty years, former high court associate, Jane Mansell, has been volunteering at Wirral Hospice St John’s. (That’s Jane on the right looking solemn as an important proclamation is made).

From her professional life you can take it as read that Jane is a good organiser and can prioritise important things. In the early days, one of her jobs was to manage daily court proceedings including swearing in jurors and taking pleas as well as reading out the TIC’s (extra offences that a defendant asks to be taken into consideration) so having checked with her volunteer colleagues and some patients we also know that she is friendly, approachable, trustworthy with a great sense of humour.

Jane was here for the official launch in 1983 and she will be with us in the hospice gardens for our Summer Fair when we celebrate our fortieth anniversary on Saturday, June 21^st, 2023.

l-r Luci, JANE, Hayley and Kathleen

The hospice, taking inspiration from Dame Cicely Saunders, the acknowledged founder of the modern hospice movement, had been envisioned as a haven where people with, in those days, predominantly, cancer, could be given the most compassionate care and support to live out their final days as comfortably and pain-free as possible.

So, responding to an appeal for volunteers in the local newspapers which, back then, would have been the Wirral Globe and the Wirral News, Jane was keen to become involved.

Jane (left) with her hospice volunteer colleagues from 40 years ago

As well as her busy job in the courts, Jane volunteered in a fortnightly team of four on Saturday evenings. Sometimes one of the other week’s teams might not be able to make it and Jane or one of her colleagues would fill in.

She’s got many memories of chatting with patients, making them a cuppa, listening to their family stories and one has particularly stuck with her from all those years ago. A lady, named Agnes, was able to be reunited with a family member who had emigrated to Australia after the hospice had facilitated the reunion. It was a joyous occasion, especially memorable among many that Jane has witnessed down the years.

In that time Jane has seen the hospice evolve into the fully rounded specialist care and support service for people in our Wirral community living with incurable illnesses, while maintaining our core principle of putting our patients at the heart of all we do.

Nowadays Jane is a volunteer in our Wellbeing Centre.

On a Wednesday morning she joins our patients, other volunteer colleagues and our staff team in one of their weekly Check in and Chat gatherings. It’s an opportunity for patients who have completed an initial eight-week series of wellbeing support sessions to spend some time back in our Wellbeing Centre, mainly enjoying a cuppa, each other’s company, quizzes, games, like Play Your Cards Right and maybe even some Gym-Ball drumming for fun and a little exercise.

One session sees the patients, staff and volunteers explaining the funniest thing that ever happened to them! Jane regales them with the story of the busy crown court judge who asked her to check that he’d packed his bags properly for the weekend away he was planning (they trusted her that much!) Suffice to say the items, including a shabby string vest that Jane recalls finding and holding up completely bemused, has the room in uproar!

She’s a hospice supporter in many other ways including being a member of our hospice lottery since its very first day in 1998 and she’s happy to let us know that back in 2015 her support was rewarded with a nice £7,000 win of the 2nd prize rollover.

Well done Jane, you’re a winner and so is the hospice for having your services these past forty years!