The Highlights Of Jeans Week.

That is the day a driver from ellenor picks her up and takes her to the hospice at Northfleet, where she meets with her newfound friends and enjoys activities such as seated exercise, music and gardening.

These sessions are part of ellenor’s dedicated Wellbeing programme, which offers patients opportunities to remain active, engaged and socially connected while living with a life-limiting condition. Through physiotherapy led exercise, creative arts, music and gardening, our focus is on enabling people to live with purpose, maintain independence where possible, and enjoy the companionship of others in a supportive community.

The former secretary, who spent her working years as a civil servant in the City and Docklands, still enjoys using her brain and communicating with like-minded folk. She started coming to ellenor at the beginning of this summer after her family contacted the Wellbeing team. The cancer Jean had suffered from for some years had spread to her spine and they felt she would benefit from some extra support.

She said: “It’s so nice to be with people, listening to a pianist maybe, doing some exercises or planting some seeds. It’s lovely to talk to others who have problems like mine.”

Jean finds life harder, and often more lonely, since losing her husband two years ago. Dave, also a civil servant, retired a few years before Jean and suffered from heart problems.

She said: “Dave was great. When I first became ill with breast cancer, he would drive me to Farnborough Hospital every month for treatment and check-ups. That went on for five and a half years. They all call me Aunty Jean there.”

Jean had a mastectomy as part of her treatment but more recently the cancer has spread to her spine, and she has just finished a course of radiotherapy.

Additional problems with her neck mean she has minimal movement in one of her arms, and she finds it easier to sleep downstairs in a reclining chair.

Life is more restricted than it used to be, but despite her obvious grief and physical battles Jean brims with positivity. Part of ellenor’s remit is to encourage this outlook and help patients find a way to pursue a life of fulfilment.

At ellenor, staff members and fellow patients remember Jean’s name. She feels part of something special, somewhere she can share her stories of the past and her hopes for the future.

Born in 1935, Jean was brought up in Bexley with her sister Elinor, who was five years older than her. Their early years would not prove to be easy, tainted by war and the loss of their dear mother, but their struggles made Jean resilient and determined.

She proudly carries pictures of the VE day party held in her street, Dorchester Avenue, at the end of the Second World War. There is also a photo which hauntingly shows the space left by a house razed to the ground just days before her family and their neighbours received their official air raid shelters.

She said: “We all hid behind the settee during that raid, but sadly a little boy down the road was killed.”

A few years after the war ended her family suffered another devastating blow when Jean’s mother died – Jean was just 8 years old.

She said: “My dad didn’t know how to tell me that she was gone, and I went into her room to ask her to brush my hair as she always did before school. It was heart breaking…

“After that my grandmother came to look after us. When something like that happens, you grow up to be very independent. I was used to being on my own.”

Jean found peace and happiness again when she and Dave married and moved to Wilmington. They had three children, Jenny, who lives in Eltham, Kevin, who lives in St Leonards, and Gary, who lives part of the time in France but speaks to his mother on the phone every day. Jean is also a proud grandmother of three, ranging in age from 15 to 31.

As well as spending time with the family, Jean has been known to put pen to paper to write short stories and once belonged to a writing group. It’s a hobby she would love to explore again, maybe writing some memories of her life growing up, her own family and her secretarial job.

Reflecting on her working life is important to Jean and she still receives cards from her old boss. She remembers with joy the painting he did for her when she retired of the view across from Docklands to Greenwich.

She said: “I enjoyed working in the City but when we moved to Docklands the journey could be quite difficult. Dave used to sometimes drop me in Greenwich, and I would walk through the tunnel under the river and then get on the Docklands Light Railway.”

These are memories she can voice to staff and friends at ellenor, where there is a whole raft of groups and activities including a This Is Your Life scrapbooking class. Many of the activities and therapies are now run in the charity’s new state of the art Wellbeing centre.

Patients and families can also visit the café or sit on The Green area at the hub of the building to just chat and offer each other love and support and meet new friends like therapy dog Suzie.

Jean can be found on a Wednesday lunchtime with a group of friends she has met at ellenor, chatting happily and eating a freshly cooked meal.

She said: “I do look forward to coming into ellenor as I can’t get out much now unless my daughter picks me up and takes me to somewhere like Hall Place.”

“Each and every one of the volunteers at ellenor is wonderful. If I had my retirement again, I would definitely volunteer at the hospice.”