The Pilgrims charity has began expanding its services to the wider community by holding a weekly outreach session in Dover.

Nurses and practitioners meet at the Phoenix Railway Club in Crabble Road every Friday to give unwell residents the chance to get the help they need.

Associate practitioner Kathleen Griffin, who works in the family services team, said: “We decided that a hospice shouldn’t be a building, but that it should be a philosophy.

“So we decided to start an outreach which is about being in the community like all your other health care services.

“The guys at the Phoenix Railway Club give us the club free and we are there every week.

“It helps people to live well. Not only that, we can bring our services to them and perhaps use other local services so that we can integrate when we are there.

“And our nurses come down so we can have a clinic and we have complimentary therapy too.

“It stops them having to come into the building at Canterbury, which can also be quite scary.”

Volunteer and fundraiser of more than 30 years Jayne Dunsbee said: “I started at Canterbury in 1983, I had a friend who was in there and I had no idea what a hospice was.

“I had the preconception that people have about it being a gloomy place, but it was actually the opposite.

“I was blown away when I saw the care that my friend and family had including the bereavement process.”

Mrs Dunsbee was inspired by the way the hospice worked and wanted to make a real difference.

“We have a huge amount of fun,” she added.

“It is very informal but at outreach we have Pilgrims staff there and I have been trained by the hospice to do hand and foot massage as well.

“We have other volunteers that also meet and greet the patients, some talk about it being the highlight of their week.

“More and more will happen in the community and more outreaches will grow hopefully.”