Courtney's Story

Courtney had to come home after her first term at Birmingham City University, where she was studying law. Soon after Christmas 2021 she started getting severe headaches and after two eye tests she was sent for an MRI scan. Courtney was told she had a small cyst on the brain. Kim remembers: “She had a small op to redirect the fluid from the cyst. When she woke up from the operation, the headaches had gone, and we thought she was sorted.”

Shortly afterwards though, Courtney started feeling a strange pins and needles like sensation all down her left side and a second MRI revealed she had an aggressive brain tumour. “Everything that could go wrong did. She lost her hearing and got diabetes and put on loads of weight. But she still fought,” Kim recalls proudly. 

Kim got in touch with Thames Hospice, who supplied some equipment to make life easier for Courtney at home. Courtney also had two counselling sessions with the Hospice – something Kim is still considering for herself.

It had been Kim who had asked the hospital to contact Thames Hospice when Courtney’s condition deteriorated rapidly, after her near year-long battle.

“The hospital were superb, they tried everything they could. Then they said they had done everything they could do. If this is going to happen, I thought I don’t want her to die here I want her to go to the Hospice.”

“When she arrived at the Hospice and was given her room, they said you can decorate it however you want. But it felt homely anyway. I just felt so much better that she was at the Hospice rather than hospital. The Hospice is peaceful; much more peaceful. The room was gorgeous. We had the corner room – it was all glass so there was a nice view.”

Unlike at the hospital, where visitor numbers were limited, friends and family gathered in Courtney's room to spend precious time with her, although by this time she was in a coma. Kim remembers it being an unexpectedly positive evening.

“We got food from the Hospice café to have in the room. We had music on. Her boyfriend was there and a best friend who she had known since they were four and another best friend. They painted her nails and massaged her hands and feet.

“It was very uplifting. It wasn’t at all sombre. It was a lovely day. For a weird situation, we had lots of laughs and we wouldn’t have had that in the hospital. It lifted us which was exactly what we needed.”

The following morning, Kim says Courtney gently moved her eyes, before quietly passing away.

“The nurse said she felt like she’d known her for a long time. They were all so lovely. They’d talk to her, comfort and stroke her. Then after she passed, they allowed us to sit with her. They were so nice.”

Kim found the Hospice’s ‘blanket therapy’ a big comfort and always keeps the blanket that Courtney held, close to her. Kim tells us that one of Courtney’s friends has used the knitted butterflies as a type of ‘shrine’ to Courtney in her room; spraying the butterflies with Courtney’s favourite perfume, next to a photo of her.

With last year’s Light up a Life Service being the first anniversary of Courtney’s passing, Kim says it was: “Very, very emotional, but it was lovely, beautiful, and it was so well organised. For me it was the sense of community as well. We came as a big group, but actually everyone that was there, was there for a similar reason. You lifted each other up. I'm going to book in again for this year. I loved it.”

Placing a leaf on the Memory Tree has also provided Kim and her family with the opportunity to come and remember Courtney. “I’ve also started coming here quite often for a walk around the lake and for lunch just so I can be closer to Courtney,” adds Kim.

Such is her gratitude for the help and support Thames Hospice provided Courtney and the family, Kim now wants to give something back.

“I’ve put myself down to volunteer here just to say thank you – either working in the restaurant or driving patients. I’d really like to do it because if it wasn’t for you guys it would have been a different ending, and you couldn't have asked for a better ending really here, could you?”