“Bex was my best friend—loud, bright, and the life of every room she walked into. She could talk the back legs off a donkey, and she was everyone’s friend.”

Lucy explains, how the care from Fair Havens gave the duo more time together.

In June 2023 when Bex was just 32, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, she tried all the different treatments and chemotherapy she was offered so she could spend more time with her son Zu. This was until June 2024 when doctors told her there was no more treatment, and ‘she had to live the time she had left’

“For the last eight months of her life, Bex was in and out of hospital. It was loud, chaotic, and where she didn’t want to be spending her days. When she was told that there were no more treatment options, she knew exactly where she wanted to go – Fair Havens.”

“I remember the moment we arrived. We drove together from the hospital, two nurses were waiting outside with a wheelchair and oxygen, ready to welcome her in. Inside, there was cake waiting in her room. Bex loved cake. It was such a small thing, but in that moment, I knew she was home.”

“Bex stayed at Fair Havens for eight weeks. It wasn’t just about medical care; it was about giving her the chance to live while she was still here. The staff became like her friends, sitting with her when we couldn’t be there, making sure she was never alone. There were nurses a similar age to her, who she could joke with, who understood her and made her feel comfortable.”

“For Bex, the care at Fair Havens was about more than medicine. It was about the things that made her her—cake, music, jigsaws, laughter. It was about being with the people she loved. We had sleepovers, movie nights, and even a roast dinner in the garden. Things we never could have done in hospital.

“As a nurse myself at our children’s hospice Little Havens, I’ve always known the importance of good care at the end of someone’s life, but being on the other side of it changed everything. I know now, more than ever, that it’s the little things that matter. The smile on Bex’s face when someone brought her a slice of cake and a cup of tea. The way the staff sat with her in the quiet moments. The chance to just be her friend, instead of her carer because we handed that all over to the staff at Fair Havens. Those are the things I remember of the last few months of her life, it’s all memories we treasure now.

“Bex died in August 2024, at just 33 years old. If she hadn’t come to Fair Havens, she wouldn’t have been as comfortable in the last months of her life, and I don’t think we would have had those extra weeks with her. The hospice didn’t just care for Bex; they gave us time—time to laugh, to cry, to make memories that will last a lifetime. And for that, I will always be grateful.”

To find out more about how you or someone you know would benefit from the care at Fair Havens, click here.

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Published October 2025