THE family of an “incredibly loyal” supporter of an Essex hospice who died earlier this year have bought vital equipment for the charity in her memory.

Annie Davidson

THE family of an “incredibly loyal” supporter of an Essex hospice who died earlier this year have bought vital equipment for the charity in her memory.

Diana Lindley passed away in April and during her illness had a brief stay at St Helena Hospice in Colchester where she had been a volunteer for more than 20 years.

Mrs Lindley, of Brightlingsea, was a founder member of the town's support group for the charity as well as helping out at the Highwoods site.

After her death, her family felt she would want the organisation to benefit and donated more than £2,300 to buy a patient monitoring machine.

The equipment measures blood pressure, pulse, temperature and the concentration of oxygen in the blood.

Mrs Lindley's husband, Ray, and daughters Jocelyn Crallan, Sarah Carruthers-Jones and Rebecca Sury visited the hospice for the official handing over of the machine.

They were joined by assistant nurses Carol Hill and Lorna Norfolk, Ann Hopkins, chairman of Brightlingsea Support Group and Berni Spurling, secretary of Brightlingsea Support Group.

Mr Lindley paid tribute to the Brightlingsea support group and all the hospice volunteers as he handed over the equipment.

Kathryn Davies, of St Helena Hospice, said yesterday: “We are really grateful for the generosity of the Lindley family in thinking of us at this sad time and giving us a really useful piece of equipment.

“The Brightlingsea support group has always done a lot of fundraising and Mrs Lindley was an incredibly loyal stalwart of the hospice. She was very well-loved.”

She added: “The ethos of the hospice remains as patient centred as always, trying to make the hospice less like hospital and more like home.

“However many patients benefit from blood transfusions and other treatments for pain which necessitates accurate and frequent observation of their temperatures, pulse rate and blood pressure, for example. This piece of equipment will be an invaluable asset for this monitoring.”