A SWEDISH nurse has given up the past 12 summers to work for free at a Dorchester hospice.

Every year Ingegerd Winblom drives her red Alfa sports car from Stockholm to the Joseph Weld Hospice, where she volunteers for seven weeks and rents accommodation while doing so.

Ingegerd Winblom said: “I first came here in 1997 just for 10 days to have a look because I’d heard so much about Joseph Weld and how good they are.

“When I left the nursing director at the time said ‘how did you like it?’ I said it was too short and she looked at me seriously and said ‘you can come back when you like and stay as long as you want.’”

From that summer onwards Ingegerd returned for seven weeks at a time, working with seriously ill patients at the hospice.

It takes her two days driving and a night on a ferry to reach Dorset, where she rents a cottage at Hilton, near Milton Abbas.

Ingegerd, who has 40 years nursing experience and is a head nurse in a large private hospital in Sweden for elderly people and dementia sufferers, is also on the board of the Red Cross Nurses in Stockholm among many other commitments.

She said her time at the hospice was also a ‘holiday’ from her busy life in Sweden and she was grateful the staff ‘allowed her to come’.

Ingegerd said: “I love the place here and the hospice.

“As soon as you put your foot into here you feel it’s something very special.

“There’s a very warm atmosphere, you smell the flowers and everyone says ‘hello, how are you’. It’s very nice here.”

Ingegerd added: “The staff have a very good education in palliative care and the high level of caring is terrific. They always put the patients in the centre and give them dignity and have a very deep interest ithem.

“As long as they want me to come, I will. It’s very important to me.”

Show them you care

THE Show Them You Care campaign has raised £4,478.20 since the appeal was launched on February 28 but there is a long way to go to hit the £60,000 target needed to pay for a community nurse for a year.

All the money will be used to fund a nurse for a year and pay for all of their support and expenses.

Crucially, it would mean even more patients and their families receiving all the support they need, when they need it most. Donate by visiting webpage www.justgiving.com/weldmarnurse

Send cheques payable to ‘The Weldmar Hospicecare Trust’ to the Dorset Echo at Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, DT4 9XD We would also like to hear your stories of how Weldmar has helped you. Call Laura Kitching on 01305 830984.