MACMILLAN CANCER APPEAL: Macmillan nurse Vanessa Davey has touched the lives of more than 500 cancer patients and their families in Swindon that's why we chose her to be the face of our campaign.

She had always wanted to be a nurse and turned her childhood dream into a reality when she signed up for nurse training at Leicester Hospital 13 years ago. Now Vanessa, 31, is the clinical nurse specialist in palliative care at the Great Western Hospital and loves every minute of it.

It takes a special kind of person to excel in a job where reminders of human frailty are an everyday occurrence. But she says that is all part of the challenge.

Vanessa, who became a Macmillan nurse three-and-a-half years ago, said: "I get a great amount of job satisfaction. I feel that being able to help someone prepare for their own death is a very privileged position to be in.

"All nursing jobs have time constraints but with mine I have more time to sit down with my patients and talk through their worries. It's a very important part of it.

"The family who are left behind are also helped and it is comforting for them to know their loved one died with dignity and in as little pain as possible.

"My role in palliative cancer care means my patients will die from the disease. So a major part of the job is helping to allay those initial fears that people undoubtedly have when they are first told they have cancer."

As Vanessa is based at the hospital, most patients meet her soon after they are first diagnosed, when she says they are still in a state of shock.

"Patients' main worries at that stage are how the disease will progress and how they will die," she said. "Over the years I have nursed a lot of people who have died so I'm able to give them an honest idea of what to expect.

"It's often the case that what's in their head is far worse than what actually happens. That maybe because in years gone by medicine wasn't as advanced and deaths weren't as dignified."

Vanessa, who worked in a Nottingham hospice for three years when she qualified, estimates she has been present at around 100 deaths, a part of her job she says she has learned to cope with.

She said: "I remember soon after I first qualified I saw a patient who had only just died. It was quite scary.

"At that age you can't really be prepared for it but I was young and inexperienced. You learn to deal with it and you need to be there for the relatives.

"Most of the time I manage to keep a good balance all the way through my patient care and I am able to leave work behind me at the end of the day. There are occasions when some patients get to me. I do get upset and have a cry."

Vanessa currently sees nine cancer patients but she says the number constantly changes because of the nature of the job.

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