Havens Hospices urges the local community to help ensure hospice care is there for everyone who needs it, as Hospice Care Week 2026 gets underway.

Havens Hospices is calling for action to ensure people do not have to leave access to vital hospice care to chance, as Hospice Care Week 2026 highlights unequal access facing people living with incurable conditions.

This Hospice Care Week, running from 5–11 October 2026, Havens Hospices is joining hospices across the UK to say: “Don’t leave hospice care to chance.”

Less than 10% of Havens Hospices’ income comes from government funding. The majority of what it costs to care for local families comes from the generosity of our community — through fundraising, donations, gifts in wills, volunteering, and support from local businesses. Havens Hospices must raise more than £225,000 every week to be there for everyone who needs its care.

Hospice care isn’t only for the end of life. Support from Havens Hospices can begin at diagnosis and continue throughout life’s journey, helping people and their families make every day count. Demand for that care is growing fast — last year, the number of people cared for by Havens Hospices nearly doubled compared with five years ago.

Brian Sears, from Benfleet, was cared for at Fair Havens after being diagnosed with an incurable lung condition. In his final days, his wife Sheila stayed overnight in the family room so she could be by his side. After 56 years together, it was exactly where she wanted to be.

“The care was fantastic — I couldn’t fault it,” Sheila says. “As well as looking after Brian, they looked after me too. They even knew exactly how I liked my tea and toast.”

Louise Bryan, CEO of Havens Hospices, said: “As demand for our care continues to grow, charitable giving has to complement properly funded healthcare, not be relied upon to subsidise essential services. Every family we support deserves expert, compassionate care regardless of where they live or how much their community is able to raise — but right now, that isn’t guaranteed. This Hospice Care Week, we’re asking our community to help us make sure it is.”

Hospice care should not be something people have to be lucky enough to access. Everyone deserves expert, compassionate care, with comfort, choice and dignity, whoever they are and wherever they live.

Just £31 could pay for an hour of expert care at Fair Havens or Little Havens — help us be there for the next family who needs it by donating today.

Published 6th October 2026