Francesca Bentley – Retail Manager of the Whaley Bridge Hospice shop
Francesca knows first-hand how vital the care and services we offer at Blythe House Hospice are.
Francesca’s advice to others – ‘Don’t put things off, just do it, no one knows what is around the corner in life, so don’t put it off. Blythe House Hospice gave me hope again, and for that I will be forever grateful’
Francesca Bentley, the retail manager of our Blythe House Hospice shop in Whaley Bridge, knows from her own battle with cancer how vital the services provided by the charity are.
She is passionate about raising funds and ensuring support is available to people across North Derbyshire when they need it the most. ‘I enjoy giving back, being able to raise money for Blythe House Hospice after what they provided for me.’ She explained.
‘In 2017 I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. I had a smear after I gave birth in 2014 to Gracie, my daughter, they read my smear as normal so I went on as usual. In May 2017 I miscarried, and from there, a lot changed. They found a large tumour in my cervix, so because my smear was read incorrectly, the cancer had advanced and I had to go through a lot of treatment. It was quite simply the scariest time of my life; it still hasn’t really sunk in what I went through.’
‘Before I began treatment, I had an incredibly scary experience where I was blue lighted to hospital due to haemorrhaging at home in the bathroom. The paramedics came, and it took a few hours for them to stabilise me because I was going to go into cardiac arrest if they moved me.’
It later emerged that the paramedics who saved Francesca’s life thought she had died. ‘They thought once they had dropped me off in resus at hospital that I had passed, when I heard this that’s when it truly hit me just how poorly I was.’
The diagnosis and treatment had a massive impact on Francesca who as well as battling cancer had to deal with going into an early menopause at just 29 years old.
‘There are times, I still can’t get my head around that. I still have days where I am absolutely floored and feel like a young person trapped in an older persons body.’
For Francesca her health battles continued. ‘The radiotherapy, while working as it should and doing what it needed to do, was also later found to have put a hole in my urethra. In 2019 I was incontinent, I lost stones in weight because I was in so much pain and the doctors couldn’t figure out why.’
Eventually the problem was identified which led to Francesca undergoing major reconstructive surgery on her bladder. During her treatment and recovery, Francesca was able to access counselling at Blythe House Hospice, to support her severe PTSD and health anxiety.
She shared: ‘Counselling has helped more than I thought it would. Annabelle had counselled me on and off for a few years now. She is fantastic, she just gets me, it is amazing, she is able to just calm me down and has seen all sorts of my highs, and when I have been at my absolute lowest.’
‘I am a busy person sometimes when I stop that is when I have a panic attack, and all the worry comes back to me. The help and support provided by the hospice has taught me how to live with it, and process my emotions.’
‘I live with anxiety most days, it can be triggered by things like if my heart rate goes up, but the team at Blythe House Hospice are amazing and have helped me cope and taught me coping mechanisms that help me in everyday life.’
When an opportunity came up to work for Blythe House Hospice, Francesca, who has extensive retail and sales experience, jumped at the chance to give something back, joining the team in early 2023.
‘I love that I know what it is all about, and the difference the services provided by Blythe House Hospice can make to people’s lives. There are lots of poorly people out there who need us to work as hard as we can so they can have that care, and this strived me to do the best I can every day.’
At the Whaley Bridge store, Francesca and her great team of volunteers, help ensure the charity’s largest shop attracts shoppers of all ages to visit and showcase the wide range of quality goods that are donated by the community to help raise as much for the hospice as possible.
Spread across two floors, the store has dedicated rooms for toys, records and books, menswear and womenswear as well as household items and even furniture. We caught up with Francesca in November when preparations for the busy festive retail season had started. Known in her family as ‘Mrs Claus’, it is Francesca’s favourite time of the year. ‘I just love it; my Christmas decorations go up the second week of November.’
Outside of work Francesca, who is from Whaley Bridge, loves to spend time with her husband Stephen, daughter Gracie and wider family. Her experiences over the last few years have given her a new perspective on life and living life to the fullest. ‘It has given me a new lease of life.’
It is that mindset that prompted Francesca and her husband to surprise Gracie with a magical trip to Lapland. ‘We booked it a year in advance and kept it a secret, on the day we woke her up in the middle of the night to take her to Lapland, we had the best time ever.’
Francesca’s advice to others – ‘Don’t put things off, just do it, no one knows what is around the corner in life, so don’t put it off. Blythe House Hospice gave me hope again, and for that I will be forever grateful’
To find out more about the services at Blythe House Hospice please follow the link below.
