Hundreds of metal roses on display for Banbury hospice in memory of loved ones

• Reporter Charlotte Briere Edney has been to see the roses

Around 300 hand-crafted metal roses have gone on display near Banbury to help bereaved families remember their loved ones.

Inspired by the Tower of London Poppies, the artwork created by Katharine House Hospice and on display at Sulgrave is giving bereaved families the chance to have their own rose in memory of loved ones.

Around 300 hand-crafted metal roses have gone on display at Sulgrave Manor near Banbury.

Katharine House is a hospice that has been providing specialist palliative care to adults across North Oxfordshire for more than 20 years.

Sarah Witham's husband Neil passed away at the hospice in January 2019.

He had been diagnosed with asbestos cancer affecting the lining of the lung.

Following his terminal diagnosis, Sarah was put in touch with a community nurse from Katharine House hospice.

Sarah said: "We were really quite shut down to it all to be honest. We kind of felt that if we planned for Neil dying or worked on the basis that we needed palliative care and all of those kinds of things that we were sort of giving up before we'd even started."

However, Sarah said Neil "took a turn for the worse" so the couple decided to to enjoy the time they had left together instead.

She explained: "Katharine House was just so lovely...

"I always described it as the rest of the world is inside a snow globe and you're on the outside. So you can see everything that's going on but you're not involved in any of it because you just can't be, circumstances have made it that way.

"And the nice thing about Katharine House is that you become inside a bubble, the outside world isn't there.

"So everything you're doing inside that bubble is all about love and care and compassion.

"Just the love shown by staff, it was like we were family. It was like they'd known us for years."

• Sarah says she wants to keep Neil's memory alive

Speaking about roses, Sarah said: "I just think it's a nice way to pay thanks to those that were there when we really, really needed them.

"It was the most awful time and to have been shown that unconditional love from strangers and now they just all feel like family.

"It's just really nice to keep Neil's memory alive in the things that Katharine House are doing like the rose."