Queenscourt Hospice has today unveiled the new Dr Karen Groves Legacy Development Fund.
It has been set up in honour of Dr Karen Groves MBE, who founded Queenscourt Hospice over 30 years ago.
The charity has a hospice on Town Lane in Southport and cares for people across Southport, Formby and West Lancashire.
Dr Karen Groves, MBE said: “I am delighted to give my name to The Dr Karen Groves Legacy Development Fund, which has been created with the aim of enabling Queenscourt Hospice to have sufficient resources to care for future generations.
“Queenscourt was founded upon a legacy of giving, and will only continue to thrive with the ongoing support of our wider community.
“Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing an overview of where we have come from to where we are now, and how vital it is that we continue to provide compassionate care for patients and their families, when they need us the most.
“I would therefore welcome your support in whatever way you are able to give it.
“All donations, no matter how large or small, will make a vital difference.”
For further information or to donate, please visit https://lnkd.in/eB4uUDv8
The initiative is designed to carry on the incredible work of Dr Groves at the hospice, which admitted its first patients in 1991.
The centre, on Town Lane in Kew in Southport, was officially opened by Princess Diana on 11th June 1992.
Dr Groves is retiring this year after an incredible three decades in charge.
Speaking about her decision to retire, Dr Groves said: “Queenscourt is very special.
“It is special because it has a highly skilled and educated staff and volunteers who care, and support those who are vulnerable, in need, distressed, fearful of what the future holds, often in pain, and then listen – respond – and make a difference!
“The time has come for me to retire and I do so with excitement and hope for the future of Queenscourt.”
After qualifying as a medical doctor from Liverpool University in 1979, Dr Groves first identified the need for better end of life care after experiencing two particularly traumatic deaths in young women.
She went on to work as a GP in the Southport area for over 12 years and it was during this time that she and her sister Sarah, a nurse, sought advice from Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement in London.
On their return they inspired a small group of people to begin fundraising and after much hard work, planning permission for Queenscourt Hospice was granted in December 1988.
Mayor Cllr Maureen Fearn cut the first turf on March 14th, 1990 and planted a copper beech tree which still grows to the left of the entrance to what is now the Terence Burgess Education Centre.
The Hospice building was handed over on March 1st, 1991 and the next two months were spent fitting it out ready for occupation.
Queenscourt opened its Day Therapy and five inpatient beds on June 1st 1991 and later that year increased to a 10-bed ward.
The following year, Diana, Princess of Wales officially opened Queenscourt on 11th June 1992.
Dr Groves had been a volunteer doctor at the hospice for five years, while still working full time as a GP, until she was appointed as Medical Officer in 1995.
In 1996, she became the first local consultant in Palliative Medicine; in 2012, Dr Groves was awarded an honorary degree from Edge Hill University and in 2014 received an MBE for Services to Palliative Care.
In August 2022 she was invited to be the VIP special guest who officially opened Southport Flower Show.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
