IF it was a health spa, the recommendations alone would be enough to persuade you to visit.

Guests couldn’t be more effusive in their praise of the complementary therapies, friendly staff and the suite of aromatherapy-scented treatment rooms.

“It gives you a peace of mind and it lightens up your week,” Mandie Archer says. “Everyone is kind and the place is full of life, it’s a lovely place to be, it’s full of care, love and laughter.”

Except the centre isn’t open to everyone. In order to access it you need to have a life limiting illness and it’s based at St Leonard’s Hospice.

But far from being a sombre place, the Sunflower Centre has set out its stall as a place which does what other services don’t by addressing the social, emotional and spiritual needs of people living with life changing illness.

Free sessions of reiki, clinical hypnotherapy, meditation and massage are just some of the treatments on offer, but many people just go along for a chat and a cup of tea.

Sitting in the sunny atrium of the centre, talking away while making Easter decorations, is Lucie Wake.

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Just a year ago the 48-year-old was so unwell from a huge relapse of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) she was at her lowest emotionally and physically.

“I spent last year, from Christmas to August time, in the house unable to get out,” she says.

“I was on morphine. I had terrible, terrible back pain, I was just in agony. I literally thought, ‘I have no life now, I can’t get out the house, I have no independence, I’m doped up on morphine’.

“I was hiding it but I was really not feeling all that happy about life.”

Accompanying a friend to a drop in at the Sunflower Centre came as a revelation, she says.

The mum-of-two was offered complementary therapies including a sports massage which has worked wonders on her back. But just as importantly, she says, the volunteers and others using the service have lifted her out of the darkness she was feeling.

“For me, last year was black,” she says, “Mental health-wise I was really in a bad place. I came here with a very open mind and it’s been like a big comma on a very bad block of time.

“I come here loads, it’s fab. It’s the women here, it’s a very nurturing place and they laugh all the time. It’s a place where you can say the truth, which is one really important thing – you’re not with your family who you’re trying to protect. You can say it like it is. It’s very uplifting.”

As a former curtain and blind maker, she enjoys taking part in art group at the Sunflower Centre, but especially because of the conversation the pastime allows.

“When you’re doing something your mind can wander and you find yourself talking about things you just can’t believe,” she said.

“You can’t believe somebody has said it to you or you have said it to someone else so it takes the emphasis off the talking. Nobody is steering you. I have had amazing conversations in here.

“The word ‘hospice’ is the thing you wouldn’t think is appropriate.

“I’m not frightened I’m going to die, I have a long term health condition and they are different.”

Last year the Sunflower Centre at St Leonard’s Hospice started taking referrals for people of all ages from across the city, with the idea of offering care for the whole person, including specialist support and a place to relax during the day.

They found they were overwhelmed by demand, with 134 referrals and 338 complementary therapies delivered in the first year.

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Jonathan Singh, the centre’s clinical manager (pictured below), says they’re working hard to dispel the stigma surrounding the idea of a hospice solely being somewhere people go to die.

“For some people hospices are really scary,” Jonathan says.

“We’ve had families who have stood outside and agonised about whether to come in and Carol, our complementary therapy lead, just goes barging out there and tells them to come in. She will scoop them up.”

All referrals go through a friendly assessment to make sure they get the best support possible, with other services on offer including a bathing service, chill out classes, family support and a volunteer visitor service in their homes.

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Jonathan (pictured above) is working with GP surgeries to encourage referrals to the service but strongly encourages anyone who has a life limiting illness – or their family and friends – to head to the Friday drop in at the service for a talk and information about how to get a referral.

Outside in the atrium of the Sunflower Centre, sitting next to Lucie, Mandie says her experience has been similarly uplifting. While going through treatment for cancer, Mandie had reached what she calls a dark place in her life.

But since being referred to the Sunflower Centre last year by her GP, she can’t speak highly enough of the service.

“As soon as you enter the Sunflower Centre with the weight of the world on your shoulders, you start to feel the fog and the weight lift,” she says.

“Everyone is welcomed with a warm smile and a cup of tea and biscuits.”

But it can be difficult for people to be referred to a hospice, she says, with her oncology doctors and specialist nurses telling her the idea can be too much for many patients to cope with.

People need to see “it is not just somewhere you go to die,” as her family had believed, she says.

“They are now accepting, understanding and open to the services available for patients and families of people with a life limiting illness.” l If you would like to learn more about the service offered at the Sunflower Centre, a drop in group is run every Friday from 10am to 3pm, and is open to anyone with a life limiting condition and their carers and family, no appointment necessary.

If you would like more information about the Sunflower Centre, visit www.stleonardshospice.org.uk/Patients/Hospice-Care/Sunflower-Centre or phone St Leonard’s Hospice on 01904 708553.