From Nigel Hartley, chief executive officer, Mountbatten:

We have recently changed our name from Earl Mountbatten Hospice to ‘Mountbatten’ and changed the way we present ourselves and I wanted to explain why.

The main reason is to better tell the story of how your fundraising supports Islanders when they need us most. Often people only think of our Newport hospice building but this is the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks to your generous support, on any one day, we also provide free 24/7 care for more than 650 people at home.

We train and educate healthcare staff at St Mary’s and our experts care for people with many life-threatening illnesses, including dementia.

Our new Mountbatten Co-ordination Centre reaches Islanders much sooner in their illness and our Islandwide bereavement service supports children, adults and families, wherever a death has occurred.

We want people to be more at ease with death and dying. Often we support people in a crisis who haven’t thought about the end of their life.

It is always difficult to talk about but we know being more open can really improve people’s experiences. This is why we encourage everyone to use our Sunflower Cafe (open to all seven days a week), join our community choir, death chats and concerts to change perceptions of our work.

We will not lose the word ‘hospice’ but we will use it when we refer to our Newport building.

I know many will be asking how much we have spent and this is a responsible question.

A specific donation has allowed us to change external signage but we will only make changes when literature runs out, when uniforms wear out, etc.

This change has been made possible by people’s generosity and we have not spent any charitable income unwisely; this also includes the fact we will not replace anything, other than the immediate external signage to the hospice building and the shops, until we absolutely have to.

I would publicly like to thank Island-based branding expert Stephen Izatt and colleagues at his agency Thinkfarm — especially Luisa Parsons, whose family connections with us showed through in her work.

A very generous gift in kind from Thinkfarm has given us a unique opportunity to tell the full story of the care we provide across the Isle of Wight and have an international, award-winning agency improve the way we look.

If anyone would like further information, they can contact me directly at nigel.hartley@mountbatten.org.uk