Glasgow woman's moving tribute to hospice

“I’ve spent hours here, and I never knew even what this building was,” she says. “When the doctors told us Graeme should think about moving into a hospice, we shut the idea down right away.”

She pauses.

“We didn’t understand what it was like,” she adds, softly. “Now, I don’t know what I would have done without it.”

Debbie’s husband Graeme Quinn died a year ago, aged 41, after a long battle with PSC (primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease).

Now, his wife and their sons Kaiden, 17, Carter, nine, and eight-year-old Kyle, are preparing to remember him at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice's Light Up a Life ceremony on December 8 at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

Debbie and Graeme with Carter and Kyle (Image: Debbie McMillan)

The Glasgow Times will publish the names of all who have donated to the Light Up a Life appeal  in a special feature next month.

Graeme, who lived in Pollok, was first diagnosed with PSC when he was a teenager, explains Debbie, who is an assistant catering manager.

She says: “He had lots of treatments, he had liver transplants, and two new hips because of arthritis... he was about to get a knee replacement too, but in the end he wasn’t strong enough.”

Graeme with Kaiden, right, and Carter, left, and Kyle, plus Hugo the dog (Image: Debbie McMillan)

She adds, sadly: “Last spring was supposed to be a fresh beginning for us. I had a new full-time job at the NHS, we’d sorted things out so Graeme would do the school runs....but it wasn’t to be.”

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Graeme had become increasingly tired, and his health was rapidly deteriorating. He was eventually taken to hospital, where arrangements were made to transfer him to the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.

“They were not even sure if he would make the journey,” says Debbie. “I still remember walking in here, and being terrified, and the staff just reassuring me right away, saying he was downstairs, settling in, and they handed me a cup of tea and a bit of tablet.”

She pauses.

“I went down to see him and he was sitting with a roll and square and some cold milk in this room that was so lovely, and so nothing like a medical room,” she says, with a smile. “I felt like a weight was off my shoulders.”

Debbie McMillan (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)

Graeme stayed at the hospice for almost six weeks, and Debbie was by his side every night.

“The staff here became like our extended family, they gave us so much support, and still do,” she says.

“I’ll be at the Light Up a Life service this year – I couldn’t do it last year as I was still in a bit of a daze. But we’ll be there to remember Graeme, and to say thank you to the hospice. 

For more information about this year’s Light Up a Life appeal, visit the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice website.