Sobell House is the final team to be shortlisted for the Hospital Hero award.

Earlier this year, Donna Cassettari’s mother, Pamela Rodgers, passed away at Sobell House in Oxford after a nine-year battle with cancer.

Mrs Cassettari, 52, has nominated Sobell House for the Oxford Mail’s Hospital Hero to thank the team for how they cared for her mother.

Mrs Rodgers, who was brought up in Barton and lived in North Way with her husband Ray, 76, and daughter Christine, 51, was originally diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004.

Despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the disease eventually spread through her body and she had feared she would not make her 70th birthday in February.

Mrs Cassettari, from Minster Lovell, said: “In March, Mum had a scan and she knew from the look on their faces there was nothing else they could do.

“But four days later she was determined to go to a Hobbycrafts show in Birmingham. She could hardly walk, but she wanted to go.”

The family travelled by train to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham to attend the show. On the way home Mrs Rodgers’ health began to decline.

Mrs Cassettari said: “They had a lovely day but it was very exhausting.

“She deteriorated over the weekend and on Sunday we phoned for an ambulance.

“They said she needs to go into hospital. Later Sobell House phoned and said there was a bed available.”

Mrs Rodgers went into Sobell House on March 25 and passed away on April 8, aged 70.

Mrs Cassettari said: “I am glad she went there. If she had been at home, my dad and sister would not have been able to cope.

“We said to her during her stay, ‘Do you want to go home?’ and she said ‘No, I’m happy here’.”

She added: “I have got very special memories of Mum’s last couple of weeks, and that is mainly because she was happy at Sobell House.”

Asked why she had nominated Sobell House, Mrs Cassettari said: “It was just the care they gave her. They really looked after her.

“Relatives can go in any time of the day or night – if you want to turn up at 2am you can – and there are no restrictions on what you can take in. We had fish and chips on one day.

“I doesn’t seem like a hospice, it seems like a home,” explained Mrs Cassettari.

“On the last day she went into a coma and they took her out of the ward, away from the other patients, and put her in a lovely side room where we could stay as long as we wanted.”

Sobell House clinical lead Dr Mary Miller said: “We very much see ourselves as serving our local community. The vast majority of the patients we look after come from Oxfordshire, so the nomination is a tribute from the community and something to be very proud of.”