\n The KLA City of Newport Half Marathon is the hospice\u2019s flagship fundraising event and 2026 sees it celebrating its 12th year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The event, which starts at 9am next Sunday from the University of Wales campus on the riverfront in Newport, gives this column the chance to shine a light on another of our city\u2019s brilliant and often unsung organisations.\n<\/p>\n
\n St David\u2019s first saw the light of day almost 50 years ago, initially as the Gwent Hospice Project.\n<\/p>\n
\n From caring for just six patients when it was set up in 1979, it now looks after more than 3,700 people and their families \u2013 mainly via hospice-at-home services.\n<\/p>\n
\n Alongside the care provided in the comfort of people\u2019s homes, St David\u2019s has operated an in-patient hospice since 2017.\n<\/p>\n
\n I had the privilege of visiting the building shortly after it was opened and it is a truly remarkable place, providing 24-hour care in the most beautifully tranquil surroundings.\n<\/p>\n
\n St David\u2019s is the biggest provider of hospice-at-home care in the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just let that sink in for a moment. Newport is home to one of the biggest caring organisations on these isles. It should be a source of pride for us all \u2013 not least because the incredible care it provides to people at the end of their lives is entirely free of charge.\n<\/p>\n
\n And yet one of the great scandals of our modern national life is that hospice care is almost entirely paid for by fundraising.\n<\/p>\n
\n For St David\u2019s that means having to raise around 70 per cent of its annual running costs of more than \u00a39 million.\n<\/p>\n
\n And so events like next Sunday\u2019s half marathon, its network of charity shops and its popular lottery, combined with nowhere near enough grant funding from the government, allow St David\u2019s to provide incredible palliative care to people with life-limiting illnesses.\n<\/p>\n
\n No political party has ever really grasped this particular nettle.\n<\/p>\n
\n Being able to face our final days in an atmosphere of peace and dignity with professional carers making us as comfortable as possible should be a right, not a charitable cause.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just because hospices are, in general, run by independent charities should not mean they are not a pivotal part of our health care system.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018Cradle to the grave\u2019 health care should mean just that, particularly for people with progressive incurable illnesses.\n<\/p>\n
\n I would challenge any politician, any person with access to the levers of power, to visit the beautiful in-patient hospice in Malpas and not agree that such services should be being paid for from our taxes.\n<\/p>\n