Documentary on the Northern Ireland Hospice and the healthcare they provide for the elderly, featuring interviews from staff and patients.

Reflecting on their work in the hospice, two nurses discuss how they "feel privileged to be there" and that "we are all here because of what has happened to us in our lives... the pain which has enabled us to understand pain... to empathise with them, sympathy isn't enough in a place like this".

However, it is difficult sometimes to provide the level of care required due to funding. Management staff are seen in a meeting discussing lobbying, and though they agree about how far ahead the hospice movement in NI is compared to England, they are frustrated at not having enough bed space or room to give privacy to grieving families.

In an uplifting viewpoint, a patient confesses that "an illness like cancer can be a gift to a family" - which she acknowledges sounds strange - but explains that "people come, friends come, and they bring you gifts, they bring themselves, they give you time and it's a way of saying your life meant something".

A UTV Production.

This programme was made with co-operation of the staff, the volunteers and the patpatients of the Northern Ireland Hospice

Producer: Brian Black

Executive producer: Michael Beattie

• NI Direct - PRONI
• Northern Ireland Hospice