A Fond Farewell

Bury veteran, Derek Thompson

Bury Hospice team members attend funeral of veteran with no surviving family.

Members of the Bury Hospice team were in attendance of the funeral of a 92-year-old veteran who died with no surviving family.

Bury Hospice Outreach Support Workers, Joanne Davenport and Jennifer Hall were amongst dozens of strangers who turned out to pay their respects to Bury veteran, Derek Thompson, who died following a two-year battle with cancer in August.

Derek was a member of the Borough of Bury Veterans Association.  He was left with no surviving family after the death of his wife Pam, who he was married to for 67 years.

Derek had been referred to the hospice outreach team following his cancer diagnosis. Joanne and Jennifer would give him fortnightly support by sitting with him, having a chat and helping make life easier for him. Derek really appreciated this company, having lost his wife shortly before meeting Jennifer and Joanne.

Jennifer and Joanne

Members of the public and veteran community were invited to attend Derek’s funeral service (held on Monday 7th October), following a plea on social media from the Veterans' Charity and The Crown Veterans Breakfast Club (where Derek used to regularly attend), which called upon military personnel (past and present), and civilians to attend Derek’s funeral.

Derek's coffin was escorted to Radcliffe crematorium by a motorcycle bearing the Remembrance flag.

Joanne said: “Derek was fiercely independent, he loved listening to music and talking about politics – he was just a lovely man.”

“He thought Bury Hospice as marvellous and he thought highly of what we did.”

Although Derek was a widower, and had no children, his funeral wasn’t a lonely one – it was very well attended, with dozens of veterans and people from the community gathering to bid Derek a beautiful farewell.

Jennifer said: “I felt honoured to have had an input in Derek’s care and to have got to know him.”

“The service was lovely, especially as so many people who didn’t know him turned up to pay their respects.”

“I have a lovely memory of taking a Christmas hamper to him and putting the tinsel from it around a picture of his late wife, he never removed it.”

Both Jennifer and Joanne were honoured to attend the veteran’s funeral service.

Joanne said: “The funeral was amazing, Derek would have been humbled by it.” 

“It was so nice for me to see our journey through – he couldn’t have had a nicer send off.”

Head here to find out more about the supportive care available at Bury Hospice:

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