We support adults with life-limiting illness from their diagnosis onwards. We help people to understand and manage their illness, to cope with its impact on their lives, as well as supporting them to live well. Importantly, we support family and carers too. We provide a Hospice at Home service, enabling people in the last three months of life to stay at home if that is their choice. Our services also include help for families to deal effectively with their grief, and education for other professionals who are looking after people at the end of life. We sum up the benefits of what we offer as ‘Living well; Dying well; Caring well’.

All of Longfield’s services are free and most are provided at our beautiful Wellbeing Centre in Minchinhampton. Some, including Wellbeing Workshops, Fatigue & Breathlessness and Bereavement Groups, are increasingly being offered at community venues, closer to where people live. Currently, 85% of the charity’s income comes from the general public, through our 20 shops, our weekly lottery, voluntary donations, gifts in Wills and a host of fundraising events and activities. 

The charity employs around 145 people but is also highly dependent on volunteers. Over 400 people volunteer for us each year; across every department – at the hospice itself, at our events and in our shops and warehouse. 

A small Rescue started out of need - having links with Spain many years ago the founder of the Starfish started helping a rescue in her local area where she visited and stayed throughout the year - many dogs were helped to their forever home and that was really how Starfish was born.    These days Starfish helps just the UK dogs - it has become a bigger problem here in recent years and being only a small voluntary group, we feel we are needed here more now in the UK.  The dogs that find their way to us are those in need of support in a small home-based rescue where the dogs are fostered as our own in our homes - the old, the young and more vulnerable that would not do well with a kennel-based rescue.   We work closely with the dogs assessing them so we know them so well we can give potential owners a complete picture of the dogs and what they need in the form of a forever home - we home our dogs as if they are our own and have a 99.9% success rate in matching dogs and people up - we will never compromise so please do not be offended when we say no, which is quite often - our rescue is about the dogs first and their needs - we home them knowing if they could speak it's about their perfect match.  We are a small team of local volunteers who have worked together closely for many years now - many of us have worked for a larger organisation where sometimes people lose sight of the most important factors, and that is the dogs.   All our dogs are neutered, vaccinated, chipped, wormed/fleaed - to us that is just the basics - dogs will get everything they need to make sure they lead a healthy happy life before they leave us - if they need surgery for heart problems, treatment for ear infections, dentals for infected teeth, to name a few, they will get it - we often organise fund raisers to help pay their vet fees from our wonderful supporters.  We work with a wonderful Vets called SPA in Gloucester, and have done for years - they treat our dogs like the precious souls they are, and are important part of Starfish. 
Starfish started up in 2012 and the Starfish family has grown over the years - we will never get too big that the dogs that come into our care become numbers.  
Each dog is a special precious soul and will always be the centre of what Starfish is - a Rescue that is all about the dogs.