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- Hospice Story - Zoe
When a 37-year-old woman - a mother, sister, daughter and successful business owner – is in serious pain in the final days of her life, two weeks before Christmas, where and how would she and her family like to be cared for?
Looking back almost two years, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, Zoe Brooker’s closest relatives are in absolutely no doubt that being admitted to Thames Hospice was the best possible move – they just wish she could have spent more time there.
Zoe’s father, Les, mother, Sonya and twin sisters, Gemma and Natasha, and her son Alfie, 15, who stayed with his mum throughout her week-long stay, spoke with one voice about the care, support, honesty and dignity they experienced during the last week of Zoe’s life.
Gemma recalls the transformation in her younger sister within hours of her admission to Thames Hospice: “As soon as we arrived here, Zoe was so relaxed. She had help, she was being looked after and wasn’t in pain. We even had a bit of a laugh. We were able to be the son, the daughter, the sister and the father – a family, just as it should be.”
After a childhood spent in Knowl Hill, where her sisters remember an outgoing girl who was teacher’s pet, Zoe was keen to do something creative. After completing her hairdressing training in Reading, she worked in barber’s shops in Marlow and Henley and boasted celebrity clients, including magician Paul Daniels.
Then, when Alfie was just a nine-month-old, Zoe took on her own barber’s shop in Maidenhead. She even named it after young son – Alfie’s – which, given that he spent everyday in the shop with her, seems appropriate.
Life was going well for the new business owner and mum. Then, as Natasha remembers, she made a discovery.
“Zoe rang me up and said she had a lump. I told her not to panic and to arrange a doctor’s appointment. She had it checked, and things just unravelled from that point.”
After two operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy – throughout both of which she carried on cutting hair despite intense pain in her hands and feet - Zoe entered a period of remission.
Two years later though, Gemma remembers the shadow that had been cast over them returned.
“She always tried to be so positive and hide her worries because she was a very strong person. But she came round one day and just couldn’t clear her throat. She then drove herself to A&E and they told her there and then that the cancer had returned.”
This time the cancer was in one of Zoe’s main arteries.
“Natasha and I did some research, and we knew it was bad, but Zoe didn’t really understand the full seriousness,” Gemma says.
“She just wanted to get through it, and we were there to support her whatever happened.”
A course of target therapy and different medications followed as doctors tried to treat Zoe’s cancer. As her condition deteriorated and she started to experience serious pain, sisters Gemma and Natasha sought further care and support for Zoe.
“We knew about Thames Hospice because they’d cared for our Grandad’s wife at home and left a leaflet there,” remembers Natasha. Zoe and I also loved shopping in charity shops and had been in the Thames Hospice shop loads of times.”
Thames Hospice arranged for an ambulance to collect Zoe, with Alfie alongside her, and she was admitted on 12 December 2023.
Gemma recalls the huge sense of relief.
“Finally, someone was listening to us and helping us in our time of need.”
Zoe moved into Room 5 with a view out over the lake and Alfie says any initial worries about what to expect in a hospice quickly vanished.
“Mum just relaxed immediately. She knew she would be looked after and if she asked for something she got it straightaway."
“I’d thought it would be just like a hospital but where people die. It really wasn’t like a hospital at all, but you know you’re getting the right care, and I think Mum really appreciated that. Even though I was a kid they listened to me, and they were really helpful. It was somewhere where Mum could be normal with her family.”
‘Normal’ included being wheeled out of her room into the hospice shop and café, as well as watching Alfie fish in the lake from the comfort of her room.
For Gemma, as well as the outstanding medical care, it was the clear and compassionate communication that stood out.
“We really appreciated everyone’s honesty. It wasn’t necessarily what we wanted to hear, but it was the truth. We just wished we’d had that communicated to us before so we could have spent more quality time together. The whole approach was much more caring.”
That sense of normality and calm also allowed the family, and Zoe in particular, to have meaningful conversations, as Gemma recalls.
“For the first time, Zoe was able to tell Alfie the reality of the situation. She told him in a special way. She’d been protecting him for so long but now it was as if telling him made it ok.”
Sadly, Zoe didn’t live long enough to celebrate another Christmas. Five days before she died though, she did receive a very special gift from a surprise VIP visitor.
As luck would have it, Thames Hospice Patron Ross Kemp was paying a festive call and, when he heard there was a serious EastEnders fan on the inpatient unit, went and spent 40 minutes with Zoe.
“Oh my goodness,” said Gemma. “She absolutely loved EastEnders and he made her day. We’ve relived that time so often.”
Support for the family didn’t stop when Zoe died. Ever since her death on 19 December, Alfie has been receiving support from Miranda, Thames Hospice’s Children and Family Support team.
Alfie says he really appreciates and benefits from having someone outside of the family to talk to. In fact, ‘I’ll speak to Miranda, has become a frequently heard refrain, his relatives say.
The family is now committed to showing its gratitude for all the care and support they’ve received and are planning to run a charity treasure hunt to raise vital funds.
Gemma says: “I dread to think what it would have been like without it. It would have been a nightmare and Zoe would have suffered immensely. Thames Hospice exceeded our expectations.”
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