YVONNE Rowe was moved to write to The Northern Echo, as she nursed her dying friend, Mary Hester. She had read about a hospice in Leeds and was so impressed by what it could offer cancer sufferers, such as Mary, and other terminally ill people, she wanted to gather support for something similar in Darlington.

"Friends were very supportive, but if only she could have had the treatments available through the hospice movement, it would have been a lot easier for her," she said.

"Towards the end, Mary needed three morphine injections a day. But I look back and I see St Teresa's Hospice as the good that came out of her illness, she was the spark that set the whole thing in motion."

The response to Mrs Rowe's letter was overwhelming and led to a public meeting at the Dolphin Centre on February 6, 1986, to discuss starting a hospice movement in the town.

Organiser Lillian Elliott said: "It was an awful night, very cold and the snow was coming down, so I thought no one would come, but they did, it was packed, it really struck a chord with them.

"I think the hospice is relevant to every family, because I don't think many of our lives are untouched by cancer and other illnesses."

Soon after the meeting a sitting service began and people across the town started fundraising.

Now called Hospice At Home, the service saw volunteers helping families cope with very ill relatives, by sitting with them whenever needed.

St Teresa's now has its own premises at The Woodlands, in the town's Woodland Road. The centre continues to be the base for the hospice at home service, and offers day care for terminally ill adults. It has also recently opened a six-bed in-patient unit offering 24-hour care.

At first the Hospice at Home service was co-ordinated from an office in Woodland Road. The charity then received a huge boost in 1987 when the Carmelite Convent in Nunnery Lane sold some land.

The nuns felt their vow of poverty did not allow them to keep it and decided to give some of the money raised to the hospice. The trust bought Harewood House and created a day centre for the terminally ill, called St Teresa's Hospice.

This gained the attention of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who wrote to the trust in 1988 saying: "I am sure the hospice will bring solace to many and I wish it every success and hope that many will come forward to make it a reality."

The third part of the trust's vision was to create an in-patient facility. To do this they had to move to larger premises at The Woodlands in 1998.

St Teresa's can now truly offer the care Mrs Rowe and others dreamt of 18 years ago.

"In the past we have seen young people with terminal illnesses who have had to go into nursing homes, which is not appropriate, and neither is an acute hospital ward," said nurse manager Elaine Isham.

"With these new facilities, hopefully we will not see that happening again. We can now provide day care for any adult, Monday to Friday. The in-patient unit is open 24-hours a day and the hospice at home service never stops, we are out any time, day or night."

Last year, there were 2,000 attendances at the day centre and Hospice at Home provided more than 7,000 hours of care.

Hospice director Jane Bradshaw said: "We have the home back-up, so people can stay at home and be looked after there if they want to. They can come here during the day in a therapeutic and social environment and now the new beds are there for respite and end stage care.

"This has all been possible because of the support we have across the town and area, that's what makes this truly a community hospice. We're a charity and without the support of the community, we could not do this."