When a 23-year-old Beverly Aspin had a cancerous lump removed from her leg in 2003, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Harrogate schoolboy, Sam, had such a close relationship with his grandma that mum Lisa Hunter said they seemed to have their own language.

For the Platt family, it meant husband and doting dad Neil would get full-time specialist clinical care as the family from Starbeck came to terms with the reality of life with motor neurone disease (MND).

Helen Andrews, like many people, thought hospices were places where you go to die. Here, she tells Yoursaintmichaels how this view changed after she was referred to Saint Michael’s following her diagnosis with a terminal illness.