Hospice Care Week

For one week in October, Hospice Care Week shines a spotlight on our brilliant hospices, and their amazing staff. We’ll do this through telling their stories, hearing their voices, campaigning to policymakers, and harnessing the collective power of the hospice sector – that includes hospice supporters like you.

But it’s also an opportunity to speak up about the injustices they face, and make change.

We know local communities do incredible things to support their hospices – from donating to shops, to running marathons. But hospices need more support from governments to be able to play their full part in meeting the challenges we face in the UK’s healthcare system.

On the wards, in the community, and in people’s homes across the UK, hospices look after people who need palliative and end of life care day in, day out. They work tirelessly to make sure that those people are comfortable and can live well in the time they have left.

But hospice care isn’t only about managing pain and symptoms on a hospice ward. It is often about the things that make life better for the person and their family outside of the hospice’s building.

The things that someone might have once loved doing, but now struggles to because of their illness. Like going to their favourite café, seeing a sports match, taking a day trip to the beach, or even just getting out into their own garden. 

Each year, community nursing teams and volunteers make 1.4 million visits to help people at the end of their lives live well in the community, delivering care closer to home, keeping people out of hospital who do not need to be there – and letting many people be where they want to be, in the place they love most: their own home.

In 2024-25 generalist palliative care nurses, healthcare assistants, social workers and carers from hospices made 780,00 home visits. And specialist palliative care doctors and nurses from hospices made 620,000 home visits*. Hundreds of thousands of visits from volunteers – like those in Compassionate Neighbours schemes – help hospice at home patients do the things they love most. 

These services could – and should – be growing and expanding to meet the rising demand of our ageing population. But in actual fact, they are shrinking. Many hospices are on the brink, with surging costs leading to many services being cut back.

With the right support, there is so much more they can do. So that’s why, this Hospice Care Week, we’re celebrating all the things that hospices do to make people’s live better in their own homes, and the hospice staff and volunteers who do them – to help raise awareness that these services should be properly funded. 

Because hospice care is more than you think.

*Hospice UK Hospice Activity Data Survey, UK, 2024-25

Anyone can get involved in Hospice Care Week.

There are some really easy ways to show your support for Hospice Care Week – in whatever way works for you.

You could:

• Connect with your local hospice, by popping into your local hospice shop and picking up a few items - you could even post photos of them on social media with the hashtag #HospiceCareWeek
• Read one or more of the Hospice Care Week retail stories, below, on our website
• Watch the Hospice Care Week film, above
• Share our film, or any of our stories, on your social media networks
• Talk to friends, family or colleagues about Hospice Care Week – maybe they’d be keen to support the campaign too!
• Consider making a donation to Hospice UK in support of Hospice Care Week: by donating, you’re helping fight for hospice care for all, for now and forever.

The more people we can get sharing our posts on social media, telling stories about amazing hospice shops, their staff and volunteers, or even putting a poster up at work, the more power we’ll have to stop the hospice funding crisis and get hospices fairer funding.

Resources

To help you, your hospice or organisation make the most of Hospice Care Week, you can download a suite of resources for events, fundraising, and social media assets. 

Planning on fundraising?

Do you want to fundraise for Hospice UK? You can! Discover how easy it can be to support hospices across the UK.