"Palliative Care for Ethnic Minorities"

My 86 year-old grandfather was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in June 2014. After his treatments had failed, he was referred to the Palliative Care Team.

By the end of 2015, my grandfather was struggling with pain, mobility and chest problems and he was referred to palliative care. The palliative care team have been invaluable to our family since then and I don't think my grandfather would still be here today without their help. Naz, the palliative care liason worker, is particularly helpful and very kind. He has a great relationship with my grandfather. Naz helped organise an admission to the Marie Curie Hospice. It is particularly helpful having someone who can speak the same language as my grandfather as he is able to get more involved in his own care rather than having to rely on family/interpreters to translate.

During admission to Marie Curie, Naz helped to organise extra support for us at home in order to help my elderly grandmother who is my grandfather's main carer as we were beginning to feel the strain. Now, we have district nurses and healthcare support workers attending daily to help with cares. Also, we were referred to the Gold Line Service which is fantastic. A huge strain has been lifted from our shoulders with the help of the palliative care team. I think Asian families tend to assume they can do it all by themselves, which Naz completely understood and was able to get us to realise we needed extra support and that we should not feel guilty in asking for help.