What types of care does Hickathrift House Care Home offer?

Hickathrift House Care Home offers Residential care, Dementia care, Respite / Short stay.

Activities at Hickathrift House Care Home

We have two Activities Coordinators here at Hickathrift House. We have a wide range of activities within the home, including musical entertainment, arts & crafts, clubs for like-minded people, such as flower arranging and gardening, board games, baking (where the best bit is the eating afterwards!), and we celebrate special events throughout the year. We also have trips out on a regular basis using our own minibus, where we find out places of interest each person would like to visit.

It is important to us that each individual who we support can get as much from these activities as possible, so we try our best to arrange activities that reflect their interests and capabilities, and encourage them to participate in any way they can. We also encourage relatives to join in with activities and events as often as they can.

For the less mobile residents, we unique one-to-one session, such as simple chats over a cup of tea, reading or listening to music. Activities are some of the most important aspects of a care home, so it is essential that our team are dedicated to ensuring that residents are entertained, and that life at Hickathrift House is fun and active.

Watch our video on life enrichment in our homes.

Kat Colangelo

Activities Lead

Hello, my name is Kat and I am the Activities Lead here at Hickathrift House.

Since 2017 I have been working in the field of well-being and I am passionate and enthusiastic about enriching all our of residents' quality of life.

As the Activities Lead at Hickathrift House, my focus is learning about each of our resident's likes and dislikes and supporting them to remain receptive and active in addition to supporting them to engage with our local community friends.

I organise activities to stimulate the mind, body and soul in an enjoyable, comfortable way. My aim is to diversify and increase activities ensuring that there is something for everyone - from Wine and Cheese events, excursions on our home Mini Bus as well as individual bespoke person-centered activities.

Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure

Activities and Events Partnerships

As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies

Life at Hickathrift House Care Home

Home spread festive cheer to local children

Staff and their families at Hickathrift House Care Home, located in Marshland St James, took on a Christmas community challenge, ‘the Santa’s Roadshow’ again this December. Santa Claus, Mrs Claus, the Grinch and the Hickathrift Elves spread Christmas cheer around 16 local Wisbech villages, from Tilney St Lawrence to Parsons Drove and many villages in between.

Hickathrift House staff and their families have completed their second year running the Santa’s Roadshow, meeting hundreds of local children and their parents.

The Pantomime Comes to Hickathrift

It's behind you! Oh no it's not! Oh yes, it is! Residents had an incredible time when the pantomime visited us on Friday night.

We had a spectacular pantomime production of ‘Oliver' by Northeast Productions. We had a room full of laughs and constant smiling as these performers were making us giggle with their punchlines and amazing acting.

The staff, residents and loved ones all joined in with the performance with their amazing singing and interacting with the traditional pantomime calls.

When the actors asked for a staff member to play a small role of course our carer Linda was up to the challenge and did an amazing job of making us laugh. At the end we took part in carol singing and everyone was singing along, filling the room with Christmas cheer!

Annual Christmas Party

The incredible residents had a blast at the annual Christmas Party, celebrating with relatives. The night filled their hearts with joy and festive spirit.

As the day progressed, the excitement continued to build up, and when it was time to celebrate with family and friends at the Christmas Party, everyone eagerly gathered together with beaming smiles and ready to start dancing to the amazing KJ & The Catt!

Everyone enjoyed the scrumptious buffet, dived into the drinks grotto and put their dancing shoes on to boogie. Kelly and Dan provided a flawless show and entertained us all with their fantastic singing and wardrobe all evening.

The love and warmth that filled the room as everyone sang Christmas songs to each other was truly touching. It's moments like these that remind us of the incredible bond and sense of community we have at Hickathrift House.

Barbara's Wish

In December, Barbara's wish was granted by our Post a Wish initiative.

Barbara adores ice skating and loves that her grandson is part of the ice hockey team. So our team worked with her daughter and family on preparing a beautiful ice skating trip for her and her friends.

We travelled to Cambridge Ice Arena for a fabulous morning on the ice. Barbara's wonderful family were more than happy to join us and loved taking Barbara for a spin on the ice. All the residents loved swirling and whirling on the ice rink and sharing winter memories together.

Barbara said, "The trip has taken me back. I remember ice skating when I was really young. I've had a wonderful time. Thank you ever so much, it’s been great."

A Christmas Carol

Across our homes we’ve had the most wonderful time celebrating the festive season with a special screening of 2020’s OLD VIC: IN CAMERA – A Christmas Carol.

This beautifully staged production brought the magic of Dickens’ classic tale right into our homes. A huge thank you to The Old Vic theatre for sharing this incredible performance with us. It was a truly wonderful experience.

Christmas market brings community together

Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together at Hickathrift House to enjoy a wonderful Christmas Market.

There were all kinds of stalls on offer manned by residents, staff, volunteers, friends and family and lots of local stall holders came along to sell their wares too. There were delicious festive treats from Marshland Hall and Tearoom, beautiful artwork from local artist Gill Repper, fabulous handmade scented items ARTisau luxury, beautiful craft items and collectables from several local crafters, the list goes on! Residents also hosted a tomboloa stand, raffle, book sale and craft stall with the support of their Duke of Edinburgh volunteer Olly and staff.