IT’S all too easy to take for granted the amazing facilities right on our doorstep.

Last week I visited Acorns Children’s Hospice in Bath Road to talk about a fundraising event in November your Worcester News is supporting.

Although I’ve lived in Worcester for most of my very nearly 30 years, I’d never had reason to visit the hospice. While in many ways this is something to be thankful for, it’s also meant I’ve largely overlooked what an amazing service it is.

While it wouldn’t be appropriate to say the visit was a pleasure, it was certainly an invaluable insight into what an amazing service sick children and their families are offered.

I was left with a sense of how incredibly lucky we are in Worcester to have such an amazing service literally right on our doorsteps. Acorns, along with St Richard’s Hospice only a few miles away, means people in Worcester can stay close to their families in what may be their final days.

In many other parts of the country people in need of hospice care can find themselves a very long way away from their families and loved ones, which can only make matters worse. This must be particularly harrowing for older couples, when the one left behind, while physically healthy, may not be able to get around without help.

And of course those precious extra minutes of travel time can make all the difference when someone is slipping away.

While Worcester is a city, it’s a fairly small one, so having facilities such as Acorns and St Richard’s is certainly not something to take for granted. It was only this year we got a radiotherapy centre, after all.

Thankfully none of my family members of friends have had to spend time at Acorns or St Richard’s, but I do know people who’ve had personal experience of the amazing work done the teams at both hospices and all of them have had nothing but praise for them.

Statistically we’re all likely to have some experience of hospice care at some point in our lives – whether it’s for ourselves or a loved one – but thankfully we have some of the best care right on our doorsteps.