Meet our 2025 Light Up a Life speakers!

Our Light Up a Life services in Manchester Cathedral, at St Peter’s Church, Hale, at Little Hulton and at Heald Green are intimate services that allow those in attendance to come together to remember their loved ones who are no longer with us. 

Each service has a dedicated speaker who has had experience of the care at Moya Cole Hospice, through a loved one or through their time as a volunteer. They often give heartfelt and emotional speeches that show just how important the work at Moya Cole Hospice is to those who are present and to those who may one day require it. 

Our services are as follows:

• Manchester Cathedral on Sunday 7th December at 1pm, 2.30pm and 4pm
• Moya Cole Hospice, Little Hulton (outdoors) on Monday 8th December at 7pm
• St Peter’s Church, Hale on Wednesday 10th December at 7pm
• Moya Cole Hospice, Heald Green (outdoors) on Thursday 11th December at 7pm

Our three speakers who will be giving detailed accounts of their experiences at Moya Cole Hospice at our services are Steph Darbyshire (Manchester Cathedral @1pm), Mark Heil (Manchester Cathedral @2.30pm) Margaret Tait (Manchester Cathedral @4pm), Sam Lanigan (Hale), Samantha McDermott (Little Hulton), and Colin Baxter and Helen Seppman (Heald Green).

Steph Darbyshire – (Manchester Cathedral  @1pm)

Steph Darbyshire says Moya Cole Hospice will always have a place in her heart. Her son, Nicholas died at the Little Hulton hospice in 2022.  

Nicholas had a seizure that left him with catastrophic brain injuries in April 2021. He died at the hospice in September 2022.  

Steph always thought of a hospice as being somewhere depressing and horrible, and was really skeptical, but didn’t want Nicholas to stay in hospital either, it was too clinical.   

She spoke with the team from the hospice, who put her at ease about how they would care for him.   

“I will always remember my first impression of the hospice,” she said. “I was so surprised at how bright, how homely it felt.”  

“There was this one particular time when Nicholas was quite poorly. I don’t remember how long I was with him. I couldn’t count the cups of tea that the staff brought me. I remember saying thank you, but I don’t think I can drink anymore,” she said.  

Steph actively supports the Light Up a Life appeal at the hospice and her story features in the main appeal campaign. 

Mark Heil (Manchester Cathedral @2.30pm)

The hospice cared for Mark’s wife, Helen, on three occasions, the first two for pain management and the final time at the end of her life. She died on July 2nd, 2024. Mark says the hospice allowed him to become a husband again, having been her carer for so long. Mark says he is always welcomed back to the hospice with open arms.  

Helen was diagnosed with Stage 4 Bowel Cancer in 2018.  

Helen and Mark were terrified when she was first admitted to the hospice. Mark said this feeling quickly went away.  

Mark and his family now raise funds for the hospice. His daughter Amelia ran the Great Manchester Run 10k on behalf of the hospice and plans to run the Ibiza Half Marathon next year for the hospice also.  

The family has now raised enough money to have Helen’s name displayed on the donor wall in the new hospice. 

Margaret Tait (Manchester Cathedral @ 4pm)

Margaret Tait’s first contact with the hospice was four decades ago when she was invited as a pastoral assistant to attend a clergy training day in Little Hulton.  

She dreaded that first day at the hospice, saying she felt it would be a very sad place, a very quiet place, and filled with doom and gloom. By the end of the day, her opinion had changed in its entirety, calling it a place filled with laughter and joy.  

Years would pass by before she would hear talk of the hospice again. It was seven years after her ordination as a minister when she came to Gatley. When she arrived, she was asked immediately if she would like to be a volunteer chaplain at Heald Green. She agreed to it on a three-month trial. Twenty-six years later, she was still at the hospice.  

“I was a chaplain to day therapy, and I used to come in one day a week, and I really enjoyed my time here. I visited inpatients and helped to conduct services of remembrance and thanksgiving,” she said.  

Margaret says she has so many happy memories volunteering at the hospice. 

Sam Lanigan (Hale)

Sam has been supporting Moya Cole Hospice since 2023 when her mum, Denise died in the care of the hospice from cancer. 

The thing that stood out to Sam at that time was the nurses and how they wanted to know all about Denise; they wanted to see photos of her. “It just made such a difference that they really cared about her,” Sam said. 

She also spoke about how the hospice helped her with bereavement support after her mum had died.  

Sam and her family became active supporters of Moya Cole Hospice, continually fundraising. Sam became a volunteer in the Fundraising office and is now an official staff member and Community Fundraiser for the team. 

Samantha McDermott (Little Hulton)

Samantha has raised circa £20,000 in memory of her son Adam, who died at Little Hulton in 2020 aged 22.  

Samantha completed her elective placement at the Little Hulton hospice in 2005 when she was training to be a nurse. It was here she realised all the hidden services that a hospice offers from day care, complimentary therapies, symptom management and counselling. 

Adam was admitted to the Christie’s in August and later had a bed in Little Hulton. He died in the hospice on September 16, 2020. 

Samantha and her family hold annual coffee mornings and have taken part in various challenges including the National Three Peaks challenge and New Year’s Day swim.   

Samantha’s daughter, Lily, donated 16 inches of her hair to the Little Princess Trust. Adam’s godfather, Mark completed a 5k swimathon and the family as a whole have raised almost £23,000 for the hospice with the intention to raise more. 

Samantha has said that the hospice remains a huge part of her life, having recently started bereavement counselling at the hospice. 

Colin Baxter and Helen Seppman (Heald Green)

Brother and sister, Colin Baxter and Helen Seppman are speaking at the Heald Green Light Up a Life event and will be detailing their experiences when their dad died at the hospice in November 2023. 

In September 2023, their dad was sadly diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his stomach. Their mum became his full-time carer.  Their dad came in for a short stay at the hospice on November 10th 2023 as a way of giving their mum a break for all the caring she had been doing. 

He died in the care of the hospice not long after. Colin and Helen say there aren’t enough words to describe all the people that work at the hospice but they are all positive. Describing the staff as “loving, caring, compassionate, and wonderful”. 

Colin and Helen, and their loved ones continue to fundraise for the hospice and have so far raised over £1,300 since their dad died in 2023.