In October, one of our nurses at LOROS, Sian Cooke, will be running the Leicester Half Marathon raising money for LOROS.
“I’m not a natural runner. I’m 61, and over the years I’ve faced more than my fair share of health challenges. When I was 37, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Thankfully, it was slow growing, and so far there has been no recurrence.
After recovering, I applied to be a nurse at LOROS in 2004 and began working on the ward. But life changed suddenly when my partner, Adam, had a stroke. I left work to care for him, and it was an incredibly difficult time, filled with hospital visits and constant infections. He had locked-in syndrome and, for a long while, he didn’t want to live. When Dr Feathers accepted him into LOROS, everything shifted. He began to improve — and he began to want to live again.
Eventually, he was discharged to a nursing home, but his health sadly declined. In 2016, after eight long years of illness, he died of sepsis at Glenfield Hospital.
After losing Adam, I never thought I’d return to nursing. I felt completely emptied out. His death left a huge gap in my life, and the loneliness during COVID made everything even harder.
But the only place I could imagine coming back to was LOROS. I worked hard to revalidate and return, and I loved being back. When my own health began to worsen with frequent chest infections, I moved to the discharge team. It turned out to be the perfect place for me. I’m passionate about what happens after LOROS — about making sure patients and families get the support they need. Caring for someone at home is incredibly hard, and my own experience helps me understand just how much pressure families are under. We do everything we can to make sure people aren’t left feeling alone. It can be frightening, and LOROS is there when everything else has failed them. That’s why keeping the hospice going is so important. It deserves far better support from the government.
I wish we could keep everyone here, safe and secure, but we can’t. What we can do is make sure that anyone with an incurable illness receives the very best care.
As for the running — I’m not fast, but I’m determined. I train at lunchtime, and four laps around the estate gives me two miles. I’m up to around eight miles now, and the mental health benefits have been incredible.
I’m hoping to raise as much as I can for LOROS. I want to make people’s lives better. I’ve been given a second chance — 25 years cancer‑free. Not everyone gets that chance, and I want to use mine well.”
