Over the years several Girlguiding IW Units have supported the Island’s Mountbatten Hospice either by general fund raising, donations or taking part in Walk The Wight.
At the beginning of April 2018 there was a re-branding of not only the hospice but other services and the charity shops.
A Press Release from the charity explains:
A very generous gift in kind from a highly experienced international marketing expert who lives in Ventnor, and his award-winning agency Thinkfarm, has given a unique opportunity to explain the full story of our hospice care across the Isle of Wight.
Stephen Izatt, who runs the agency Thinkfarm, has gifted the charity a way to better tell the story of how the Island’s amazing fundraising supports Islanders and their families when they need us most. Working with Luisa Parsons, an Island-based member of his team, who has close personal experience of care from our Island’s hospice, a new name and look has been created, which now reflects the many, growing and different services we offer.
As of Tuesday 3 April, the whole organisation that was Earl Mountbatten Hospice will be known as ‘Mountbatten’. The word hospice will continue to be used where it refers to our building in Newport, ‘Mountbatten Hospice’. Our ten hospice shops will become more local and relevant to their local populations, through the use of their town’s name in the shop title, for example ‘Mountbatten Ryde’, ‘Mountbatten Ventnor’ and so on. Our Care at Home teams will be known as ‘Mountbatten at Home’, and nurses and carers who work across the organisation will be known as ‘Mountbatten Nurses’ and ‘Mountbatten Carers’. Our whole Island community, including fundraisers and other supporters, will be encouraged to join our movement to make the biggest difference across the Island and continue to raise awareness and funds at events which will be in partnership together, for example ‘Walk the Wight with Mountbatten’ and ‘Santa Dash with Mountbatten’ etc.
Nigel Hartley, Chief Executive, said: “Often you hear people say ‘the Hospice’ when they talk about our service and usually they mean the 16 beds at our building in Newport. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we do. Recently someone mentioned to me that they do not support us as they believe that £7m per annum for 16 beds is rather expensive. We have to help people to understand the growing breadth of what we offer.
Thanks to our Island’s fantastic fundraising support, on any one day we also provide 24/7 care to over 650 people who are facing death and dying in their own homes. This number continues to grow, through our new and innovative services such as the Mountbatten Coordination Centre and our expanding domiciliary (personal) care services, where we are supporting hundreds more people. People also don’t realise that we have our own team based at St Mary’s Hospital, providing education programmes for professionals and supporting hundreds of patients to return home to the places that the live as quickly as possible.
It is also important to understand that we have never solely cared for people with cancer. Every day, our experts support those living with cancer, but also older people living with increasing frailty, those living with dementia (which is now confirmed as the biggest cause of death across the UK), heart failure and other more long-term life threatening illness. Through our Mountbatten Coordination Centre, we are able to reach Islanders much sooner in their illness, so we can better plan together for their future care and make sure their wishes are known. Our Island-wide bereavement service caters for all ages, including children, and for anyone who has been bereaved, wherever the death may have occurred, even if not under the care of Mountbatten.”
Alongside the new name, a new logo retains the iconic sunflower but it has been simplified with the poignant addition of one petal gently departing from the main flower. (see above) There is also a new strapline, which describes the three core elements of Mountbatten’s work: living, dying, remembering.