The willow outside her room

A willow tree stands in a courtyard at East Cheshire Hospice in Macclesfield, outside a bedroom. Dave Barron looks after it. His wife, Catherine, spent her last days in that room. She died in 2020, aged 49.

The hospice told the story this week as the volunteer gardeners turn the beds towards winter. Dave comes on Wednesdays with his older brother, Phil. Their father, Don, died in a bedroom nearby, five years before Catherine, at 79. Phil's mother-in-law, Dorothy Leigh, was a patient in 2013.

"The hospice means a lot to us because we've had three family members here," Phil said. "They were brilliant in extending their lives through love and care. The staff were phenomenal and we're grateful."

Dave had known it would not be easy to come back as a volunteer. "They're a great gang and aware of the situation," he said. "There's a tremendous spirit among us. It's like having a second family and we support each other."

The gardening team works on Wednesday mornings. The hospice still describes the season as March to October. This year Carol Waterhouse, who used to manage the inpatient unit and now comes as a gardener, says they started in March and will stay until early December. Housekeeping watered through the dry summer on the days the volunteers were not there.

Patients go outside in their beds when the weather allows. Clair Arnold retired from the hospice finance team two years ago and came back this spring with a pair of secateurs. Last year her father, Ed Griffiths, 92, spent his last days on the ward. She and her sister Joanna walked the gardens with him. "To me the gardens were as important as what happens inside the building," she said. "You realise that once you use the hospice services as a family."

Some of the plants arrive as thanks. In July, Grant and Aqua Luke brought three trolleys of bedding from the Knutsford nursery their grandfather started. Their father, David, had been an inpatient and then went home with Hospice at Home nurses, which is what he had asked for. He died in 2023. Barclays staff, who have been coming for four years, put the plants in. Phil mentioned that visit when he talked about keeping the place pleasant for people who walk round and need somewhere to sit.

East Cheshire Hospice has been on Millbank Drive since 1988. The inpatient unit has 15 beds, including seven en-suite side rooms, and overnight space for families. More than 300 volunteers work with about a hundred staff. Twenty-one per cent of the money comes from the government. The hospice says it still needs £9,362 each day from Macclesfield, Buxton, Congleton, High Peak, Knutsford, Poynton, Wilmslow and the towns in between.