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Ian and Susan

Ian and Susan celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in September and while Ian was receiving care in the hospice for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy he wanted to organised a surprise for her. Before Ian’s condition, which he was diagnosed with around 5 years ago had worsened, he’d planned to take Susan to Paris, a place the couple both love, but is now not able to travel so instead he asked the hospice team to help create the next best thing – to bring Paris to the hospice. From Susan’s reaction he’d definitely done the right thing, she described being very tearful and extremely surprised when ushered into the beautifully decorated room.

Ian had very specific requirements to create the occasion just as he’d envisaged it! There had to be lobster thermidor for dinner, an indulgent chocolate dessert and champagne of course! The charity team leaped into action managing to arrange for a local chef to come in and cook dinner and a violin player called Madeline who was only 16 and played beautifully for the couple. One of our volunteers also brought in very opulent furnishings and decorations including a candelabra which would not have looked out of place at the 3 Michelin starred restaurant in Paris Ian was planning to take Susan to!

Ian and Susan's anniversary
To help conjure up the romance and beauty of Paris further our team sourced vintage photos and created a lovely display of black and white images of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Le Sacre Coeur and many other of the city’s landmarks. They also gave the couple a DVD of the Audrey Hepburn film, Sabrina which is set in Paris.
Paris
During their 50 years of marriage the couple have made a huge contribution to their local community as they both worked as police officers in a variety of roles in the county. Overall Ian worked for Northamptonshire Police for 30 years going from walking the beat to motorway duty and then on to organising policing for Royal visits and sporting events. Ian then worked for 14 years coordinating the stewarding at Northampton Saints as Safety Officer before finally finishing work at the age of 69 when he had to retire as his illness started to progress. Susan, following her career in the police and bringing up their daughter Rachel, then worked as a guide at various stately homes in the county and gave art history talks throughout Northamptonshire.

Our team would like to thank Ian and Susan for sharing their story, and most importantly for being part of our Cynthia Spencer family.

By sharing your story with us, and giving us permission to share it, you could help us to raise awareness of Cynthia Spencer Hospice, help to dispel myths about hospice care and help more people to access support.

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