Christmas may be all about getting together with friends and families, but for many people the ones they would love to greet and celebrate with are no longer there.

About 1,000 people gathered on a bleak winter's afternoon in a packed space between buildings at the Churchill Hospital in Headington, Oxford, on Saturday, to grieve and remember those they had known and loved but who had been taken from them by cancer.

Now in its 11th year, this annual Lights of Love service attracted more people than ever before, with some relatives travelling from as far as the north-west of England and the west country to be close to the Sobell House Hospice where their relatives had received the best care and support in their final weeks and months.

A 20-foot Christmas tree, donated by Timbmet Ltd of Cumnor Hill, and lit by a thousand lights supplied and fitted by the Southern Electric Company, was the focal centre of the gathering.

Attached to each light were a thousand personal messages placed by families in memory of husbands, wives, sons and daughters.

Bill Couldrick, the chairman of trustees of the Friends of Sobell House Hospice charity, said: "For many of us this is an occasion which can be quite sad, as we remember friends and members of family."

Mr Couldrick said the aim behind it was to offer medical, psychological and spiritual support to patients to improve their quality of life.

During a short service, with carols played by the Jubilee Brass (Oxford) Band and accompanied by the Cathedral singers of Christ Church, the Rev Bob Whorton, the Sobell Hospice chaplain stressed the importance of remembrance at this annual occasion.

He said: "It is important that you remember the ones who are precious to you."

One Oxfordshire family was there to remember Rosemarie Spence, who died in the hospice in October two years ago, aged 64, after being a patient for just six weeks.

Her husband, Harry, 68, of St Giles, Bletchingdon, near Bicester, paid an emotional tribute to the care given to Mrs Spence, a former MoD employee who later worked at the village shop.

Surrounded by his two daughters, Nicola Holcombe, 44, of Weston-on-the-Green, and Carolyn Harris, 41, of Bletchingdon and three grandchildren, Mr Spence could not speak highly enough of the support given by the hospice.

"She had excellent care. We come every year to this; it's a lovely service," he added.