Our Purpose
St Catherine’s is a local hospice which cares for adults in Chorley, Preston and South Ribble who have a life-shortening condition, and their loved ones.
Our catchment area includes around 380,000 people, and our services touch around 2,000 patients and families each year.
We work with patients and families to help them achieve what is important to them. Care is personalised to each individual and their circumstances, and aims to help people live in comfort, and with dignity, independence and choice.
Because we know that time in hospital can be stressful and unnecessary when living with a life-shortening condition, our aim is to provide the support people need to be able to stay at home if that is their wish, or to receive care on our in-patient unit at the hospice.
Although we do care for people in the last days of life, we are here for people from diagnosis and through bereavement. Around 50 per cent of those who are admitted to our in-patient unit have their symptoms better managed so that they can go home again.
The support of St Catherine’s doesn’t stop when someone has died – we are here to help loved ones through bereavement, and are privileged to host various opportunities for our community to remember and reflect together.
To find out more about our story and how we’ve got to where we are today, click here.
Our mission, vision and values
Our mission is to help more local people facing conditions like cancer, heart failure, respiratory disease and motor neurone disease to have quality of life, to the end of life.
Our vision is that everyone in Central Lancashire facing a life-shortening condition gets the support they need to have quality of life, to the end of life.
Our values are caring, compassionate and committed.
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Hospice myth-busting
Myth: St Catherine’s is part of the NHS
Reality: St Catherine’s is an independent local charity and receives around a third of its funding from the NHS; the rest is raised through the amazing efforts and wonderful generosity of our supporters
Myth: You only go to a hospice to die
Reality: St Catherine’s is here to help people to live well until they die. Although we do provide specialist care and support at the end of life, a big focus on our work is to help people manage their pain and symptoms better so that they can then return home again.
Myth: Hospices just care for those with cancer
Reality: We look after people with all kinds of life-shortening conditions, including motor neurone disease, heart failure, MS and respiratory conditions.
Myth: Hospices are just for older people
Reality: At St Catherine’s we care for people of all ages from 18 upwards.
A few words from our Chief Executive, Stephen Greenhalgh
Thank you for your interest in the work of St Catherine’s.
We truly are your local hospice – we belong to our community and can only be there for those who need us because of the support we receive from it.
Amazing moments occur every day at the hospice – from the patient who is able to get out of bed for the first time in days, to the carer given a vital helping hand before breaking point, or the volunteer celebrating another decade of service.
Thank you for helping to make these moments happen.
