Please see the full report for Sue and Jamie’s trustee visit to Hospice Ethiopia in October/November here.
The Big Give 2024
Many of you have generously made donations in the past that have helped provide care for patients at Hospice Ethiopia. We’re very excited to let you know that Hospice Ethiopia UK has been selected again this year to participate in The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024, the UK’s largest matched funding campaign.
We hope to raise £11,500 this year to increase Hospice Ethiopia’s capacity to care for more patients as they approach the end of their lives. We hope to raise enough money to fund an additional nurse and a new Social Worker to the team, but we can’t do this without your help.
One donation, twice the impact.
Donations to this project will be matched for 7 days, from 12pm on Tuesday 3rd December – Tuesday 10th December 2024. So, every pound you give during that period means two pounds for Hospice Ethiopia.
Only donations made through the official Big Give website will count for match funding so put the date in your diary now!
Patient story: Kia
Jamie and Sue visited Kia during their recent trip to Addis Adaba. She is a 35 year old female patient with breast cancer. She follows the Muslim faith from which she derives great spiritual support.
She received her diagnosis 4 years ago and following a biopsy she underwent a left mastectomy at the Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH), and subsequently received 8 cycles of chemotherapy. In June 2024 she developed vaginal bleeding and underwent further surgery for ovarian cancer, along with an endometrial polyp. The ovarian cancer is a probable secondary cancer to the original breast cancer. She has been advised that further chemotherapy will not be beneficial.
She lives with her husband and 3 children aged 9, 8, and 5 in a single room house. Her husband sells fruit and vegetables from a small road-side stall. Her 8 year old daughter has severe life-long disabilities. She is unable to walk, talk, or feed herself so needs round the clock care but does go to a local school for special needs during weekdays. Kia receives a monthly grant from the Tewolde Medhane fund and intermittent food support from Hospice Ethiopia.
She has been prescribed anastrozole (hormone treatment) for her breast cancer, which is giving her menopausal type symptoms. She takes ibuprofen as required for back pain and also Sildenafil for Reynaud disease-type symptoms of her fingers. This medication is usually prescribed for male impotence and we shared some giggles as we suggested keeping it away from her husband!
Despite the very difficult health, family, and financial situation, Kia was cheerful and at peace with herself. She commented she would not be able to cope without the support from the team from Hospice Ethiopia.
Calendars and Christmas cards for sale now!
We now have beautiful 2025 calendars available for sale. We are enormously grateful to professional journalists Fred Harter and Michele Spatari for providing the unique photographs of Ethiopia – one each month for our calendar. These are available from Hospice Ethiopia UK and from the Christmas card pop up shop in Norwich, priced at £10 + P&P. Please contact Sue (info@hospiceethiopia.org.uk). If you feel able, please add an extra donation to your bank transfer to support the work of Hospice Ethiopia.
Christmas Cards
Order your Christmas cards now to avoid disappointment! We have 3 new designs this year exclusive to Hospice Ethiopia – see below. Cards are sold in packs of 10, at £5 per pack (+ postage if applicable), and are available from Marion (celia.bryce5@gmail.com), Sue (info@hospiceethiopia.org.uk) or the pop-up Christmas card shop at St Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich (which opens on 15th October 2024).
Sue Mumford on World Hospice Day 2024
Patient Story: Fetla
When we were in Addis Ababa earlier this year, 3 of our trustees visited Fetla. This is her story. She is 50 years old and is married, living with her husband and their 2 children. As an Orthodox Christian, she feels supported by her religious faith.
She was recently referred to the Black Lion Hospital with a likely cancerous breast lump and the hospital made a diagnosis of breast cancer with a cerebral metastasis (the cancer had spread to her brain). The hospital had offered to do a fine needle biopsy (presumably of the breast lump) but no hospital records or letters were available to see. Fetla had received 5 doses of radiotherapy to her head.
She also received domiciliary support from her local health centre and 2 health centre nurses visited her while we were present. This is the first time we had seen an outreach team from a health centre visit a patient in their own home.
Her symptoms of blurred vision and ataxia (poor balance and coordination) improved when she started taking the steroid dexamethasone. Her constipation was treated with bisacodyl and she was also prescribed pantoprazole to protect her stomach from ulcers which could be a side effect of the steroids. Her nausea and vomiting had improved on the antiemetic medication metoclopramide.
Nurse Kalkidan had established that Fetla had been made aware she had cancer, but not that the disease had spread to her head. She spent time talking with her providing psychological support and encouragement and will visit her again in 2 weeks.
Patient Story: Genet
When we visited Ethiopia in February 2024 we met Genet, a 57 year old spinster. She is a Protestant Christian and has an adopted daughter who had recently been married. Genet lives alone in a rented single room house. Before becoming ill, she had worked in a school, but was now unable to work and had no income, so receives a monthly grant from the Tewolde Medhane Fund (previously known as the Comfort Fund). She learned about Hospice Ethiopia from a friend so she referred herself to Hospice Ethiopia. Prior to this she had received 7 doses of chemotherapy at the Black Lion Hospital for her incurable colon cancer that had spread to multiple sites in her liver. The chemotherapy had made no impact on her disease and she had not been offered any other anti-cancer treatment such as radiotherapy.
Genet had been prescribed tramadol for her pain by the hospital for a neuropathic (nerve) type pain. When she was first assessed by Nurse Kalkidan, her physical problems were abdominal pain, fatigue, reduced appetite, constipation and intermittent vomiting. She had been prescribed a steroid medication for the vomiting by the hospital. During our visit Nurse Kalkidan adjusted her pain killing medication adding in metoclopramide and omeprazole for the nausea along with gabapentin (300mg daily) for the pain and bisacodyl to prevent constipation.
She is being supported spiritually by her religion and church connections. She was counselled by Nurse Kalkidan and encouraged to remain as active as possible (she goes to church and is able to walk around). We explained the difficulties of treating fatigue and advised eating whatever she fancied whenever she felt hungry.
Successful Auction of Promises
Hospice Ethiopia’s wine and cheese and auction of promises was a fantastic evening and raised over £2,700. Every penny of this will go to support Hospice Ethiopia. A massive thank you to the hugely entertaining Mrs Temple, for both her wonderful cheeses and her insightful presentation. Also thanks to the equally entertaining master of ceremonies and auctioneer extraordinaire David Robinson. Yet more thanks to all who donated lots for the auction and prizes for the raffle. Lastly, our thanks goes to our wonderful volunteers who worked so hard to make it all happen and all those who dug deep and bought the lots!
June 2024 news from Ethiopia
Hospice Ethiopia UK’s Chair Sue Mumford has monthly online calls with Director of Hospice Ethiopia UK, Ephrem Abathun. Here is some of the latest news from Ethiopia:
- Ephrem has been in discussions with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health about revising and publishing a new strategic plan for Palliative Care in Ethiopia. Crucially the provision of morphine is included for the first time in the revised plan.
- The Minister of Health has now issued the necessary documents for the Black Lion Hospital to import morphine powder to produce oral morphine liquid. The American Cancer Society has purchased the morphine powder so we are optimistic that oral morphine solution will soon be available to relieve the pain for the dying in Ethiopia. Initially this medicine will be available for patients at Black Lion Hospital before being expanded to other hospitals in Addis Adaba and then to regional hospitals across the country.
- Training: Ephrem and his staff laid on a workshop for Chaplains and representatives from the Christian Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim communities. Following this a draft training manual is being produced for training religious leaders in supporting terminally ill patients. As part of this work some of Hospice Ethiopia’s patients were questioned about what spiritual care they felt is needed when approaching the end of life. All this will help deliver the individualised care that people approaching the end of life deserve.
- Following a joint application between Hospice Ethiopia and Hospice Ethiopia UK, True Colours Trust (a UK charity that supports palliative care providers across Africa) is providing funding for a 4 day palliative care training course at Hiwot Fana Hospital in Harar later this month. Harar is a holy Islamic city in eastern Ethiopia and is known for its maze-like alleys and traditional houses decorated inside with flat baskets.
- Hospice Ethiopia UK and Hospice Ethiopia has recently been approached by Dr Yates from Soddo Christian Hospital (situated in the Oromia part of Southern Ethiopia) to provide palliative care training for their staff. The hospital serves a population of over 20 million people. Planning is in the early stages for this training to be delivered in the autumn when some of HEUK’s trustees will be visiting Ethiopia.
Doctor receives palliative care training funded by HE UK
Money raised by Hospice Ethiopia UK has been used to fund training for a doctor based in Southern Ethiopia, Dr Juhliad. His interest in palliative care started in 2019 when he received a three day introduction to palliative care at The Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, delivered by Hospice Ethiopia’s Director, Ephrem. Dr Juhliad now works at Yabelo Hospital which is a town in the Oromia region, 580km south of Addis Ababa. Here he sees patients who desperately need symptom management and end-of-life care. With our help this year he has completed the foundation course in palliative medicine at Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences and is now attending a Master Class course that will go on until December 2024. He will go to India for ‘hands-on’ clinical training in November 2024 as part of the course. This is what he told us:
“The hospital where I am based now doesn’t have a specific place dedicated to patients needing palliative care. And it seems difficult to persuade the hospital administrators to integrate palliative care services for now. But I am trying to integrate palliative care practice into my daily routine for patients who might be candidates for such services at a chronic disease medical outpatient department. Moreover, I am intending to launch a free telehealth service for patients needing palliative care through my social media platforms…I am also interested in providing webinars on palliative care for frontline healthcare workers.”
Hospice Ethiopia UK 