Sue’s off to help South African Aids children     

By Craig Robertson SUE HOGG, deputy head of care at Rachel House, left Scotland on Thursday, desperately hoping she could persuade airport staff to overlook her luggage allowance, writes Craig Robertson. Apart from seven weeks worth of clothes, her bags were stuffed with enough toys to fill a nursery. They had all been “rescued” from Rachel House and were destined for a children’s hospice in South Africa. Sue is spending three weeks at Sunflower House in Bloemfontein — a hospice where almost all the children have HIV or Aids — and then four weeks at a hospice in Warsaw.  The roots of her journey were planted more than two years ago when a nurse visited Rachel House and told how she was setting off for France, Germany and Sweden, courtesy of a grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.  It struck a chord with Sue, but she did nothing more than mull it over in her mind until she heard two conference speakers at the end of last year. “One was from Poland, the other from South Africa and they talked about their jobs and how palliative care (relieving a disease or disorder without attempting to cure it) was dealt with there,” Sue remembers.  Shortlisted “It was so interesting and so different from what we did that it really grabbed me. I remembered the Churchill Trust and decided I had to do something about it.” Sue had just three weeks to apply. But she was shortlisted for a grant, attended an interview panel, and in January heard she’d been accepted.  Three short months later — during which she discovered she was pregnant — she flew out. “I’m really excited about it,” she said. “The fact that Sunflower House deals mainly with children with HIV and Aids will present its own challenges and interest.  “In Warsaw, there’s a home care service and it’ll be fascinating to see how they deal with that.  “I want to discover how people cope with so few resources, compared to us. The whole aim is to give people the chance to travel and pursue an interest — mine is palliative care — and bring back something of benefit. I’m sure there is so much I can learn from this trip. “We have had a child with HIV in Rachel House, but that was many years ago. This will be so different and I’m keen to see what they do in terms of imaginative use of care.” Back

You can e-mail us at: hospice@sundaypost.com