When Susan Hannam married Mariano de la Torre Higueras at Skipton parish church in 1978 she caused a sensation, stopping the traffic in the Yorkshire market town with a colourful and noisy musical tradition from Spain. Fifty years later she returned to her hometown to visit relatives and show off the OBE awarded for her work in taking the best of British tradition to Spain. In between: decades of dedication to a unique and international project.
In the 21st century, it is quite normal for young people to travel abroad – to study or work, to go on a gap year or on holiday – forming international friendships along the way, and quite possibly ending up living in another country. For British youngsters it may have become more difficult, since Brexit, to up sticks and go and live elsewhere in Europe, but it no longer requires the adventurous spirit of the 60s and 70s – a spirit which nurse Susan Hannam epitomised.
Holiday romance with a wedding that stopped traffic!
Susan, in true 60s style, had met Mariano while on holiday in Torremolinos with three friends from Leeds General Infirmary, where she was training. Mariano, an Economics student at the very new Malaga University, had joined the faculty’s ‘Tuna’ – a band of student musicians who, as Susan says, spent more time making music in 13th century student costumes than studying – and was playing in a Costa del Sol hotel. This student pastime, in fact, was to be his eventual profession and he became well known on the Costa del Sol music circuits. This was the beginning of Susan’s love affair with Mariano, and with Spain.
The next step took the form of an experiment. After some visiting to and fro, and lots of letters, the two decided to ‘try a month together’ in Malaga. The months turned into years and Susan and Mariano were married in 1978 in Skipton parish church, in the presence of Susan’s family, her friends and a Tuna band, which played in procession and stopped the traffic with their colourful costumes and jovial minstrel music! The wedding was reported in the Telegraph & Argus under the headline ‘Spanish song and dance at wedding’.
Life-changing role in creating Spain’s first hospice
Back in Spain, children came along, Susan learned Spanish and became an active member of Benalmádena society, campaigning on local issues and eventually planning to open a nursing agency catering to the international community. Then a friend invited her to go along to a meeting called by a British pensioner who had recently lost her husband, and the course of Susan’s life changed again. She went home from the meeting and told Mariano that she was going to join the movement proposed by retired businesswoman Joan Hunt to set up Spain’s first hospice.
Palliative care was in its infancy in Spain, and the concept of ‘hospice’ was practically unknown: there was no equivalent in Spain and the Spanish word ‘hospicio’ historically meant an establishment taking care of abandoned and orphaned children. Joan Hunt was intent on introducing the British concept of hospice to southern Spain and with the help of Susan and of Dr Marisa Martin – a Malaga doctor who had grown up in the UK – she created the charitable foundation Cudeca (cuidados del cáncer = cancer care).
After that first meeting, Susan threw herself wholeheartedly into the project, raising funds, taking part in the initial home care programme, and spending time while on holiday back in the UK visiting hospices and learning from them. She later became Cudeca’s first employee and worked in the hospice until her retirement – when she continued as a volunteer and Vice President of the Foundation.
Bringing British concepts of volunteering and fundraising to the Costa del Sol
Susan’s role in Cudeca was never confined to nursing. She was instrumental in developing all the hospice’s services, in training the volunteers who are crucial to the charity, and in setting up the charity shops which account for a high proportion of the funds, as well as spreading the word to the entire local community. Before the advent of Cudeca, charity shops run by volunteers were as little known as the hospice movement and it was Susan, and other members of the English-speaking community on the Costa del Sol, who got the ball rolling with both.
“Volunteer work is really a British heritage. The Spanish have a different attitude to this type of work,” says Susan. To her and the other pioneers’ immense credit, there are now charity shops all along the Costa del Sol, and volunteering in shops and other fundraising activities is now as popular amongst the Spanish population as it is amongst the foreigners.
Susan Hannam: OBE for a shining contribution to palliative care
Susan said, when the Honours List was published, that although it was a huge honour for her, the OBE “boils down to Cudeca and the foresight and determination of Joan Hunt. This recognition is not about me, it is about Cudeca”. She repeated the tribute to the founder of Cudeca after she was presented by Prince William with her OBE for services to palliative care in Spain, adding “and I wore a hat I got in a Cudeca charity shop!” The same hat featured in a moving tribute to her from colleagues and friends at Cudeca when she returned home to Spain.
The citation itself mentions her work in palliative care and volunteering, and an extended version might have added that she is also a shining example of what integration and international collaboration can achieve.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
