THE team at St Margaret’s Hospice Care is launching a new appeal to help more families spend precious time together during the most difficult moments of life.

The hospice is hoping to raise £20,000 to fund two new “cuddle beds” for its In-Patient Unit, giving more patients and their loved ones the opportunity to lie together, hold hands, and share moments of closeness when it matters most.

A cuddle bed is a specialist hospice bed that safely extends to allow loved ones to lie side by side.

For couples, parents, and families facing the end of life, it offers something simple but profoundly meaningful – the chance to stay close, just as they would at home.

Currently, St Margaret’s has two cuddle beds available for patients on its In-Patient Unit, where people with complex needs receive specialist palliative care and symptom management.

But with demand high, not every family gets the opportunity to use one.

By doubling the number of cuddle beds, more people will have the chance to create lasting memories and spend precious time together.

For Alison, whose husband Rob was cared for by St Margaret’s Hospice, the cuddle bed made an immeasurable difference during the final stage of his life.

Rob had been living with an aggressive brain tumour, and after months of hospital appointments and treatment, the couple were used to spending time together across bed rails or squeezed into small hospital spaces.

At St Margaret’s Hospice, that changed.

The hospice offered Alison the chance to lie beside Rob in a cuddle bed

Alison said: “In a normal hospital, you’re just sort of on the periphery,”

“There’s not a lot of room, or you’re told you shouldn’t really sit on the bed. But in the hospice, it’s all different.”

For Alison and Rob, the cuddle bed meant they could share the small, everyday moments that had become so precious.

She continued: “The evenings where you’d be sat on the sofa at home cuddling and watching TV were carried on in the hospice,”

In the final hours of Rob’s life, the cuddle bed allowed Alison to stay beside him, holding his hand.

“I lay on the bed with him, just talking to him,”

“Then he just went. The nurses were so respectful. They told me to stay with him as long as I wanted. I lay with him for a couple of hours — and when I left, I knew I’d never see him again.”

Now Alison is determined to help other families experience the same comfort and closeness.

“A cuddle bed is the most wonderful thing,”

“It’s so important for families and patients to be together and still have that connection — the same connection they would have had at home.”

Supporters, including Alison, have already helped raise £10,000 towards the appeal.

St Margaret’s now hopes to raise a further £20,000 to fund two new cuddle beds for its In-Patient Unit

To donate, visit: st-margarets-hospice.org.uk/cuddle-bed-appeal