Plymouth councillor turns family heartbreak into fight for better palliative care
A Plymouth councillor who has lost her daughter, brother and sister in the space of five years is using her own family’s experiences to campaign for better palliative and end of life care across the city.
Councillor Terri Beer is also caring for her husband, who is terminally ill with cancer.
It means her campaign at Plymouth City Council is rooted not simply in politics, but in years of caring for and losing some of the people closest to her.
Cllr Beer told Plymouth Post: “My brother and sister died in my arms and my daughter opened her eyes in the Hospice and said mum before she passed away.
“I was the last person she spoke to.”
Now she wants what she has experienced to help change the way other Plymouth families are supported.
Cllr Beer said: “I would love to do something on my campaign for better palliative care and end of life care. Being prepared is key.”
She has described palliative care in Plymouth, from her own experience, as a “postcode lottery” and said she believed those who spoke up for loved ones were more likely to obtain the care they sought.
She also makes a distinction between palliative care and end of life care, arguing that receiving palliative care does not necessarily mean somebody is approaching the end of their life.
People can live for years while receiving palliative care.
Her experiences caring for seriously ill family members have also taught her the importance of being prepared and knowing how to navigate the system.
Cllr Beer describes herself as somebody prepared to speak up and fight for what she believes is right.
But she recognises that not every family has somebody able to do that.
She summed up the problem in a few words:
“Not everyone at this point has a Terri.”
It is a phrase which sits at the heart of her campaign.
Cllr Beer knows she will ask questions, find out who she needs to speak to and push when she believes somebody she loves needs help.
Her argument is that good palliative care should not depend upon having somebody like that in the family.
For Cllr Beer, the motivation behind her campaign remains intensely personal.
She cannot change what her own family has been through.
But she is trying to use those experiences to make the journey through palliative and end of life care better for other Plymouth families.
Because not everyone has a Terri.
Photographs © Wayne Perry / Plymouth Post