The story of two healthcare professionals who turned their shared frustrations with end-of-life care into a service helping people live meaningfully until the very end.
Unity PEOLC was never created as a business idea. It was born from years of witnessing the same heartbreaking situations unfold.
Julie McAvoy, a Community Nurse with 11 years’ experience, and Ruth Naylor-Thomas, a Paramedic with over 20 years’ experience, came together by chance but quickly realised they shared the same frustrations. Although they worked in different professions, they were seeing the very same gaps in end-of-life care.
Again and again, they found themselves asking: “Surely we can do better than this?”
Patients nearing the end of their lives could be left upstairs because there was no safe way to move them downstairs to a bed where they could spend precious time more comfortably. Community teams often relied on ambulance crews or the Fire and Rescue Service to help move someone safely, despite specialist evacuation equipment already existing within ambulance services. Families were left waiting, often distressed, while healthcare professionals did everything they could within the limitations of the services available.
As a Community Nurse, Julie questioned why community teams did not have access to specialist equipment, such as evacuation chairs, to help people remain comfortable at home and fulfil their wishes safely. As a Paramedic, Ruth questioned why frontline ambulance clinicians received so little specialist education in palliative and end-of-life care, and why avoidable hospital admissions still occurred for people who had clearly expressed a wish to remain at home.
Rather than accepting these challenges as “just the way things are”, Julie and Ruth decided to become part of the solution.
Combining their clinical knowledge, personal experiences and shared passion, they created Unity PEOLC – an organisation dedicated to bridging gaps in end-of-life care, supporting families and working alongside existing services.
The defining moment came when they were asked to help fulfil the final wish of a lady nearing the end of her life. Her dream was to attend her son’s wedding.
Following comprehensive nursing and paramedic assessments, careful planning, risk assessment and consent, they safely enabled her to attend.
Not long afterwards, she died peacefully.
Before her death, she thanked Julie and Ruth for giving her something that nobody else could. Those words have remained with them ever since because, in many ways, she was right. There was no service designed to make moments like this possible.
That experience became the foundation of Unity PEOLC.
Julie and Ruth believe healthcare should not only focus on helping people die well, but on helping them continue to live meaningfully for whatever time remains. Their vision is to support the living before they become the dying, giving people dignity, choice, compassion and the opportunity to create lasting memories.
They often reflect that we live in a world capable of extraordinary medical advances, yet too many people still spend their final days in environments that cannot offer the privacy, comfort and dignity they deserve. They believe everyone should have access to specialist support that helps them remain where they choose, surrounded by the people who matter most.
Today, Unity PEOLC continues to grow, with a vision of transforming end-of-life care through innovation, education, collaboration and compassion. Their ambition is not to replace existing services but to work alongside them, filling the gaps families experience every day.
For Julie and Ruth, one belief sits at the heart of everything they do:
“Dying matters. But helping people live until the very end matters even more.”
