Sewing angel of the north knits 150 pairs of hearts to help bereaved families at Royal Preston Hospital

Sarah Fearon has made over 150 pairs of hearts for the Bereavement Centre at Royal Preston Hospital after learning of the Connected Hearts project through a lecture. The idea of the project which is run by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust's Spiritual Care and Bereavement Care teams is that the patient and their family have a connection, either whilst the patient receiving care in the hospital or after they have sadly passed away. It involves sharing a pair of hearts or angels which are donated by members of the local community.

Sarah said: "I am one of the donators of the hearts to the Connected Hearts. I learnt about the Connected Hearts through a bereavement lecture at Royal Preston Hospital where Lyndsey explained beautifully how it was done and why it was affecting people and how it impacted families and it touched my heart and I know how to crochet so I decided in my spare time I would make a bunch and I have made 150 pairs.

"A patient at my last placement had passed away sadly and I managed to see the families be given my hearts that I had made and it made a massive impact in my nursing journey and also their journey emotional and it showed how much this is a good idea."

The project, which ran through Covid, produced specific keyrings for families who lost loved ones during the pandemic, with nurses distributing knitted hearts and angels to patients at end of life on the Covid wards.

"It gives them something to hold while we look after them in hospital”

Organiser and one of the bereavement and support nurses Lynsey Robertson said: "The hearts originally started when Covid started as people wanted to help family, friends, relatives and patients and people can come into the hospital so we started the Connected Heart Project. One would stay with our patient and one would be sent home to the family so that they were connected even though they were not able to attend the hospital to keep everyone safe. We give one to our patient that has died and the other one to the family and it's not just one pair if there is children or grandchildren or multiple siblings if people want a heart to be connected to that person they can all have one.”

She added that they relied on the kindness of the community to make this happen and bring a smile and comfort to families when they need it most.

"We fully rely on the skill and donations of our wonderful students like Sarah who made us an amazing amount of hearts which we can give to the families and it just gives them something to hold and something connected to a loved one while we look after them here at the hospital."