Photographs in our 35th Anniversary Book

A note for anyone who appears in a photograph from our first 35 years

This year Heart of Kent Hospice is 35 years old. To mark it, we are making a book about the hospice’s history and the people who built it.

The book will include photographs from our own archive, taken from about 1987 onwards. Most were taken by hospice staff and volunteers - at fundraising events, at work, and around the hospice. Many were published in local newspapers at the time, or appeared in our annual reports and other marketing publications. We will also be using a selection of these photographs in the marketing materials to promote the book and our 35th anniversary, for example on our website, social media and newsletters.

If you worked here, volunteered here, were a Trustee, or supported us during those years, you may appear in one of these photographs. We are publishing this notice so that you know what we are doing, and so that you can tell us if you would rather not be included.

Photographs of patients and their families

Most of the photographs in the book show staff, volunteers, Trustees and supporters. A small number show patients, or members of their families. We have only used those where permission was previously granted to use them in the press or official marketing materials at the time.

Where we could not find evidence that the photograph was used in previous press or official marketing materials, we have left the photograph out. Those photographs stay in our archive and will not appear in the book.

If you are a patient, or the relative of a patient, and you would rather a photograph was not used, please tell us using the details below. That applies whether or not permission was given in the past, and you do not need to give a reason.

Why we are making the book

• To record and share the history of the hospice, and of hospice care in our community.
• To recognise the people who built and supported the hospice.
• To help more people understand what hospice care is.
• To support our fundraising, which pays for the care we give today.

Our legal basis for using the photographs

Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis. We are relying on what the law calls our legitimate interests. In plain terms: recording our own history is a proper thing for a charity to do, we cannot do it without showing the people involved, and we have weighed our reasons against the interests of everyone who appears in the photographs. We have written that assessment down, and you are welcome to ask us for a copy.

Why we have not written to you personally

We would have preferred to. These photographs span a thirty seven year period and we no longer hold current addresses or telephone numbers for most of the people in them, with no realistic way of tracing them. Where we do still have someone’s details, we are contacting them directly. For everyone else, this notice and the publicity around it is how we are letting people know.

We should also be honest about something. At the time these photographs were taken, we did not explain that they might be used many years later in a book like this. We cannot go back and put that right. What we can do is tell you clearly now, and give you a real opportunity to say no.

What we will not do

• We will not print anyone’s address or contact details, or anything about their health or personal circumstances.
• We will not name someone if we are not sure of their identity, or if there is any reason to think that naming them would be unwelcome. In those cases we will use a first name, a job title, or no name at all.We will not sell these photographs, or license them to anyone else.
• We will not use them in advertising that has nothing to do with the hospice.
• We will not use them for any other purpose without thinking it through properly first.

If you would rather not be included

Please tell us. You do not need to give a reason, and we will not ask you to justify it. We will take the photograph out.

To be sure we can remove a photograph before the book is printed, please contact us by Tuesday 8 September 2026.

You can still ask us after that date, and we will always act on it. But we want to be straightforward with you: once the books are printed, we cannot get back the copies that have already been given out. What we can do, and will do, is remove the photograph from the online version of the book, from any future printing, and from anywhere else we control.

If you are getting in touch about a relative who has died, please do. Data protection law applies to living people, but we care about this beyond what the law asks of us, and we would much rather hear from you.

Please only contact us if you would rather not be included. We are not able to show you the wider collection, or to discuss other people who appear in it. You will be asked to provide photographs of yourself, or those you wish to discuss, taken around the same period of time and colleagues will try to identify if you appear in any photographs.

How long we keep the photographs

The photographs stay in our archive as part of the hospice’s historical record. If you ask us not to use a photograph, we will record that clearly alongside it so that the restriction is not lost or overlooked in future.

Using these photographs in the future

The photographs stay in our archive as part of the hospice’s historical record. We may want to use some of them again in years to come — when we open our new hospice, for example, or to mark another anniversary.

If we do, we will think it through properly each time rather than treating this notice as permission for everything that follows. And your right to ask us not to use a photograph of you does not run out. You can tell us at any time, not only before this book is printed. When you do, we record it against the photograph in our archive so that the restriction travels with the image and is not lost or overlooked later.

Your other rights

As well as asking us to stop using a photograph, you can ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, and ask us to delete it. To do any of these things, please use the contact details below.

How to contact us

Information Governance
Heart of Kent Hospice
Preston Hall, Aylesford, Kent ME20 7PU
communications@hokh.co.uk
01622 792200

We also have a Data Protection Officer, who advises us independently on decisions like this one. You can reach them through the address above and we will pass your message on.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled this

Please tell us first, so that we have the chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

About this notice

Published 11 August 2026. We will keep this notice on our website for as long as the book is in circulation, and update it if anything changes.