King’s Birthday Honours 2026 · Skanda Vale Hospice · 20 June 2026
Our lead nurse, Kiera Jones, has been appointed MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours, for services to nursing. The week it was announced, she marked it in the way that suited her best: a trip to Poppit Sands with four of the people who come to us for respite care.
Twenty-four years a nurse
Kiera has been a nurse for twenty-four years, since a placement with a district nursing team in her second year as a student. She has led the nursing team at Skanda Vale Hospice for the last ten. She is also a Soul Midwife, which means she sits with people through the last part of their lives, staying with them and with their families for as long as she’s needed.
A day at the sea
A wheelchair fitted with balloon tyres will go where an ordinary one won’t. We hired one at Poppit on Sunday, and it carried Ann across the sand and straight into the sea, where she laughed as the water came up over the wheels. Four patients made the trip that day, and between them they got soaked and cold and stayed in the water for as long as they could.
An afternoon like that rests on a great deal of skilled nursing — the planning beforehand, the medication, and the quiet judgement of knowing how much someone can manage and being ready if they can’t. That’s what day hospice and overnight respite are for. Serious illness takes a great deal from people, but it also has a way of sharpening what matters, and the days our patients spend with us are often surprisingly full ones.
That, as Kiera sees it, is the whole point of the work.
“Palliative care and Soul Midwifery are about making the most of life and finding joy in it, while supporting someone as they face the end of their life, however they want to do that. This week’s beach trip is a perfect example. Some of our team and patients got to paddle in the sea and feel the sand between their toes. That joy is exactly why we do what we do.”
— Kiera Jones
What the honour recognises
Kiera is one of 84 people across Wales named in this year’s honours, and one of a small number recognised for nursing. In 2024 she was named RCN Wales Nurse of the Year, in the Suzanne Goodall Independent Sector Nursing category.
She will tell you the MBE isn’t hers alone, and she means it, but it’s worth saying plainly what it’s for. For twenty-four years Kiera has done work that most of us would rather not think about, sitting with people at the end of their lives and making sure they are comfortable, and known, and not on their own. It is demanding, and it is mostly done quietly, without anyone outside the room ever knowing it happened. To see that work recognised at this level means a great deal — to Kiera, and to every nurse and carer who does the same thing without expecting to be seen.
“Anyone who has been cared for at Skanda Vale, or watched someone they love be cared for here, will understand exactly why Kiera has been recognised. She has given the better part of her life to sitting with people at the hardest time there is, and doing it with warmth and without fuss. We are proud of her, and glad the work of the whole hospice has been seen through her.”
— Brother Jakob, Hospice Manager
Llongyfarchiadau, Kiera
If you’d like to be part of what Kiera and the team do, we would love to hear from you. And if you or someone you love might need us, you can read about how we help or make a referral.
