Surrey hospice hosts church service for locals to residents to reflect

A Surrey hospice is hosting a service this afternoon (Sunday 7th) to give residents the chance to reflect and celebrate the lives of lost loved ones.

The Woking and Sam Beare hospice will have its last 'Light Up a Life' service at St Dunstan's Church.

It's the final one out of three, the previous two were held near the hospice in the previous weeks.

Lucy McNally, who is part of the income generation team, says the first two services were incredibly moving

"I'm going to struggle to talk about it without getting emotional myself. It's so special.

I think we were 250 plus people standing room only by the end. To look out onto a a room of people who have all been touched by loss at some point. Some of those will have been in our care, but it's also open to anybody that's experienced bereavement is. It's poignant, it's incredibly heart-warming."

Lucy told us that hopefully the services and the hospice as a whole, can be a place for joy and sadness in balance during the festive period

"We're not always the best about talking about death, and we really want the Hospice to be a safe place where you can sort of balance the joy and the sadness in it all.

We want you to come and laugh with us. We want you to come and cry with us if that's what you need.

We know that Christmas will be a real balance of that for so many families and they'll be cherishing lifelong traditions and they will also be looking at that seat at the table that isn't filled by somebody this year."

The services are open for all to attend, even if residents haven't lost anyone connected to the hospice, Lucy described the idea of people choosing to join them in their moment of reflection as 'an honour'

"We kind of feel like that's our role in the community, to be here for people for as long as they need us really.

The Light Up a Life services play a really vital part in that and bringing that community together and and taking that opportunity when it is really busy and it is easy to get distracted, to focus on the things that really matter.

And we do see families coming together to remember those loved ones not with us, and it's a real honour that they choose to do that with us."

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