Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund
Planning permission for vital centre granted
Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund (HCNCF) has been granted planning permission to build a £710,000 resource centre to offer valuable information and support to people with life-limiting illnesses and their families.
The charity has been given permission for the single storey building, on land next to Cutlers Hill Surgery in Halesworth, by Waveney District Council.
Once complete, the building – which will be called the Pear Tree Centre – will include space for local support groups to meet, a counselling room, small library and a comfortable area where people can relax and chat informally. A therapy room, where patients can receive complementary treatments such as Reiki and massage, will also be included, along with a landscaped garden.
Anyone from north east Suffolk or south Norfolk with cancer or other life-limiting illnesses, as well as their families and carers, will be welcome to use the centre. As well as help understanding a diagnosis, it will also offer family services, a raft of information and practical advice on finance, benefits and coping with bereavement.
The project has been made possible thanks to a successful fundraising drive which has been well-supported by local people. The building was originally granted planning permission in November 2016, but a change in the shape of the plot of land available to the charity meant the proposal needed to be revised.
The new scheme has seen the same internal layout retained, with a new access road added and changes made to the position of the building and the car park.
Rachel Booth, co-chair of the Pear Tree Centre project, said: “We are really pleased that we have secured planning permission for our revised scheme. It marks the start of the next phase of this exciting project and brings our dream of creating this important centre one step closer to becoming a reality.
“The next stage will be to begin a tender process and appoint a contractor to complete the building work.
“Once more, our thanks go to everyone who has so generously supported our fundraising drive. The Pear Tree Centre will be a really valuable facility and we hope it will benefit thousands of people living in the rural areas surrounding Halesworth.”
For more information about the project, or to make a donation to help with the centre’s running costs,
visit www.halesworthhealth.org/information-and-support-centre
Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund is a local charity (charity number 1155419) which was set up more than 25 years ago to support people with life-limiting illnesses who wish to die in the comfort and security of their own homes.
It works alongside the NHS and social services to provide extra equipment and 24 hour care in the last days of life along with emotional, physical and practical support at the time when people need it the most.
For more information, please visit www.halesworthhealth.org/nursing-care-fund, ‘like’ us on Facebook at “information and support centre fundraising campaign” or follow us on Twitter @Suffolk_ISC
Local charity welcomes new chairman
A well-known GP with more than 30 years’ experience of caring for patients has been appointed as the new chairman of Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund (HCNCF).
Kevin Maclusky, who has been a GP at Cutlers Hill Surgery in Halesworth since 2000, was appointed as a trustee and charity chairman at HCNCF’s annual general meeting on Monday (16 April). He takes over the role from Dr Richard Kell, who has retired as chairman but will continue as one of the charity’s trustees.
Dr Maclusky qualified as a doctor at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1985, and spent 17 years as a GP in Baldock, Hertfordshire before moving to Suffolk and becoming a partner at Cutlers Hill.
He said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have been invited to join this long-standing and much-loved local charity as chairman. Our practice has worked closely with HCNCF for some time and all of the GPs at Cutlers Hill are well aware of the important role the charity plays in providing essential end-of-life support to people in the Halesworth area.
“I’m looking forward to working with the rest of the trustees as we steer the charity onto its next exciting phase, which will see work begin on the Pear Tree Centre to further enhance the information and support available to people with life-limiting illnesses and their families.”
The Pear Tree Centre, which will be built on land next to the surgery following a successful £710,000 fundraising drive, was granted planning permission this week.
Once complete, it will offer complementary treatments, counselling, help understanding a diagnosis, advice on finance and bereavement support to anyone from north east Suffolk or south Norfolk with cancer or other life-limiting illnesses, as well as their families and carers.
Rachel Booth, HCNCF trustee and co-chair of the Pear Tree Centre project, said: “On behalf of all of the HCNCF trustees, I would like to welcome Kevin to the charity.
“We are delighted with his appointment. We believe Dr Maclusky is perfectly placed to steer HCNCF into its next stage of providing information and support from the proposed new Pear Tree Centre, as well as continuing to provide care for people nearing the end of their lives who would like to die at home.”
For more information about the Pear Tree project, or to make a donation to help with the centre’s running costs, visit www.halesworthhealth.org/information-and-support-centre
