Patient story – Afework

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Afework is a 60 year old Christian Orthodox man with throat cancer. It was diagnosed a year ago when he noticed discharge from his nose. Following diagnosis, he received 34 treatments of radiotherapy and 8 cycles of chemotherapy. Initially, post-treatment, he had severe radiotherapy burns to his neck (we were shown a photo) and the skin was very damaged. This has now healed but he continues to have a very dry mouth and therefore difficulty swallowing. He had lost weight over the last year due to this.

Afework lives with his wife and has 4 grown up children. He worked as a driver for 32 years and is hoping to return to work, as there was no sign that the cancer had spread on a recent CT scan.

He was not taking any regular medication although we suggested he try chewing gum to stimulate his own saliva (artificial saliva is not available in Ethiopia). Kalkidan checked his mouth and there was no sign of candida (thrush) infection. She discussed his diet with him, particularly bearing in mind he looked (and has been told) that he is anaemic. He receives food support from Hospice Ethiopia in the form of rice, oats and teff which his wife can make into a “porridge”. A doctor had advised him to get Plumpnet (a high calorie drink) from the local Health Centre. However, when he went to the Health Centre he was told it is only available for mal-nourished children.

The nurses from Hospice Ethiopia will continue to offer him and his wife advice and support.

Pride and Prejudice dramatised reading raises over £2,400 for Hospice Ethiopia

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Mr Darcy helped a Norfolk-based charity raise nearly £2,500 for desperate patients in Ethiopia.  Templewood, the privately-owned Palladian-style shooting lodge near Cromer, was the venue for a dramatic reading of Pride and Prejudice on July 27th 2025.  The cast was a combination of professional actors and amateurs, and the audience was treated to live classical music and a cream tea as well as the drama. 

Sue Mumford is chair of Hospice Ethiopia UK, the charity based in Aldborough, North Norfolk.  She said, “What a fabulous venue Templewood is!  We are so grateful to the owners, Eddie and Tina Anderson, for letting us use their beautiful home.” 

This was the third annual Jane Austen event by Hospice Ethiopia, the previous ones being held at Little Barningham Hall and Cromer Hall, and it was another sell-out.  Next year the team hopes to take on Sense and Sensibility – with the venue yet to be decided.    

“The readings are a snapshot from a section of the books,” Sue says.  “Our script writer, Margy Seale, delights in using the original language to create a truly authentic piece of theatre.  They really are great fun – and it’s a brilliant cause.”

Sue receives MBE

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Sue was delighted to be awarded her MBE (for services to palliative care in Ethiopia) at Windsor Castle on 22nd July. Sue, along with 8 charity trustees and numerous volunteers, raises funds in the UK to support the work of the nurses working at Hospice Ethiopia. This is the only hospice in Ethiopia, which cares for people with life-limiting illnesses. In addition, Sue and her husband Jamie, a retired GP, assist Hospice Ethiopia’s nurses in delivering palliative care training to healthcare professionals across Ethiopia.

Sue commented “it was a real privilege to go to Windsor Castle with my family and meet Princess Anne who awarded my medal. She took the time to ask me about my work and said that she had previously enjoyed visiting Ethiopia”.

Matt & Ian Ride for Hospice Ethiopia UK

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55 Miles to Make a Difference


On Sunday 14 September 2025, Matt and Ian will take on the iconic London to Brighton Cycle Ride – a 55-mile journey from city streets to seaside views, with more than 3,200 ft of climbing. But this ride is more than a personal challenge – it’s a mission to raise vital funds for Hospice Ethiopia UK. Matt and Ian have poured their hearts (and legs!) into training, and now they need your support. Every donation – big or small – helps make their ride truly meaningful.

Sponsor the ride and support Hospice Ethiopia UK

Patient story: Yosias

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Yosias is a 70-year-old man who follows the Christian Orthodox religion. He lives with his wife and has three grown-up children, who visit occasionally.

His diagnoses include leprosy (of which his wife is unaware), asthma and hypertension which caused a stroke leaving him bed-bound in a small room for the last 9 years – he has not left this room. He stopped taking his leprosy medication following his stroke.

He was identified as having palliative needs by a Community Worker. He is paraplegic and completely immobile following the stroke and nerve damage from leprosy. This nerve damage has resulted in hand deformities which means he needs to be fed by his wife. He has a sacral pressure sore and multiple ulcers on his hugely swollen legs. He also suffers from nerve pain in his legs and urinary incontinence.

The nerve-type pain improved when he was prescribed amitriptyline at night. The Hospice nurses also keep him supplied with sheaths for his urinary incontinence along with pads and dressings for his sores.

Due to minimal income, he receives food support from Hospice Ethiopia. A food support service has been created due to the high national inflation rate, causing starvation). To have survived 9 years in bed with multiple serious health conditions is a tribute to his carers, notably his wife and support from regular visits from Hospice Ethiopia.

Jane Austen Event, Sunday 27th July, 3pm

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Our annual Jane Austen event will be held at Templewood by kind permission of Eddie and Tina Anderson. This year’s dramatized readings will be from Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. 

Constructed in 1938 in a Palladian style, Templewood house is set in parkland and approached down a long tree-lined avenue. It is an ideal venue for dramatic readings from this much-loved novel – and the guests will be treated to live music from the brilliant Emma Nuule and a sumptuous cream tea along with a themed raffle.

Book your tickets now for this fabulous event – previous Jane Austen events have sold out!

Address: Templewood, Frogshall, Northrepps, Cromer. NR27 0LJ

Tickets cost £25 each: please contact info@hospiceethiopia.org.uk or ring Sue 01263 768699 (after June 1st 2025).

Freddie Collins attends Palliative Care Congress

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Hospice Ethiopia UK is delighted that our trustee, Freddie Collins, attended this year’s Palliative Care Congress in Belfast. This is the UK’s annual conference for palliative care practitioners and researchers. Here is her feedback:

“I was presenting an audit I completed while I lived in Ethiopia in 2024. For this audit, I went through the records of 100 patient notes to find out what symptoms they experienced and what medications the Hospice Ethiopia (HE) team used to manage their symptoms.

The main symptom that patients experienced was pain. 95% of cancer patients, and 91% of patients with HIV, experienced pain. On the first visit made by the HE team, only 5% of patients had their pain controlled. By their last visit, this proportion had increased to 60%. Most importantly, only 33% of patients had access to morphine, which is an essential medication to treat pain in patients at the end of their lives.

This audit shows two things. Firstly, how brilliant the HE nurses are! Even though they have a limited selection of tablet pain relief medications, they are still able to drastically improve pain in their patients. This is because, with your ongoing support, they are able to provide psychological, spiritual and economic support which helps to soothe pain in multi-dimensional ways.

Secondly, this audit highlights how an unmet need for pain control still does exist, as 40% of patients remain with uncontrolled pain at the end of their lives, but two thirds do not have access to oral morphine. If this study was repeated now on patients currently registered with Hospice Ethiopia, the access to oral morphine would probably be even more limited.

This inequitable access to morphine is a global problem. We can read in the 2018 Lancet Commission on Palliative Care and Pain Relief, how half of the global population receives less than 1% of global morphine supply. This audit therefore supports the urgent need for a reliable supply of oral morphine in Ethiopia and we hope that the Ethiopian government’s plan to develop a national morphine production unit will advance soon.”

Patient story: Berknesh

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Berknesh is a 40 year old woman who was diagnosed with HIV 4 years ago, not long after her husband died (he was 30 years older than her). He was Romanian and they had met at the Romanian embassy where they both worked. After their marriage, they lived in a comfortable house, with nice clothes and possessions. They had a son together, who is now aged 10.

Four and a half years ago, Berknesh’s husband was involved in a serious car accident and could no longer work. He subsequently died from his injuries. After her husband’s death she became depressed and bit by bit had to sell their possessions to survive. In order to earn some money, Berknesh became a sex worker which is how she caught HIV. She declined to take anti-retroviral medication for her disease as she felt the disease was a punishment from God for her sex work. She now lives in a one-room house and is struggling to pay ETB 3,000 (£42) per month in rent. Last year she became unwell from HIV and was so desperate that she went to the local woreda office (council), where they gave her some food support and referred her to Hospice Ethiopia. After several visits from Hospice Ethiopia’s nurses, she was persuaded to take her anti-retroviral medication, and her condition improved, but she says she feels ashamed of the way she looks (she has lost weight, has thinned hair, and skin nodules) and so has no contact with her family and former friends. She receives financial and food support from Hospice Ethiopia. Her mood remains low as she constantly thinks about all the things she has lost since her husband died. She has contacted the Romanian embassy about receiving her husband’s pension but has been told she does not have the right documentation to claim his pension. She has no contact with her husband’s family in Romania including his older son from a previous marriage.

Kalkidan spent time talking with Berknesh, providing psychological support and encouragement. Long-term financial support from Hospice Ethiopia’s Tewolde Medhane fund is not sustainable. As Berknesh’s disease is now stable on medication, she needs to find employment as her prognosis is good.