Helen’s story
Helen Jones is a cook in the Hospice kitchens.
I’m not a big fancy cook, I like down to earth, old fashioned cooking, and I love the one to one contact. Sometimes a patient writes a note saying ‘Thank you cook’ and I feel that I’ve done a good job.
We do diabetic meals using fruit sugars, so if we’re doing something like fruit crumble and custard we put those in it. We liquidise meals for some patients. There is a menu every day, with a wide range of meals. Today lunch was lemon chicken or curry and rice, but we did sausage, chips and beans for someone. If they want something we don’t have, we go and get it.
The strangest request I’ve ever had for a rabbit. Someone else wanted brawn. Lots of people want soft diets, or comfort food like syrup pudding or bread and butter pudding. We cook everything from scratch, from cakes and pastry to the meals themselves.
When the patient has had good food it helps them to feel better. It’s a real pleasure to cook for the Day Hospice. They’re always so pleased and it makes it worthwhile.
It can be a bit daunting for the patients – it’s the word ‘Hospice’. I was a bit apprehensive myself coming for my interview and thought will I be able to cope with it all? I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never looked back and I’ve been here for twelve years. My partner lost his wife here 18 years ago and I said to him ‘I don’t think I can cope with this’ and he said ‘Oh you’ll cope fine’. I’m glad I took his word now because I really do like it.
