News

Compassionate gesture funds Palliative Care comfort boxes

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 04:59:00

A donation from a Mixed Martial Arts group in Mildura is allowing timely support for family members and carers of Mildura Base Hospital’s Palliative Care patients.

Last week was Palliative Care Week and Sophie Maloney, from Mildura Mixed Martial Arts, used the occasion to do some fundraising within the group and make a $100 donation to the MBH Palliative Care Unit.
Palliative Care helps people live their life as fully and as comfortably as possible after diagnosis with a life-limiting or terminal illness. It is for people of any age who have been told that they have a serious illness that cannot be cured, such as cancer, motor neurone disease and end-stage kidney or lung disease. 
MBH Palliative Care Nurse Unit Manager Tracey Tonkin said the money was now being used to create “comfort care boxes” for people supporting patients in the unit.
“Being there for an ill relative or friend who is in Palliative Care can be enormously difficult and demanding, especially if you don’t have any prior experience with chronic illness or the dying process,” Ms Tonkin said.
“The boxes are just a small gesture that acknowledges what the carers themselves are going through,” she said.
Ms Tonkin said friends and relatives of people in Palliative Care often spent many hours at the hospital.
“These carers often spend many days sitting with loved ones, and the boxes contain little comforts for them. Things like a room diffuser and some essential oils, or a lava lamp can be really calming and comforting, but we’ll also include some practical items in the boxes, like CDs, magazines, crossword puzzles and word-finds, as well as some useful information about self-care.”
Ms Tonkin said the boxes would initially be used in the Palliative Care Unit, but hopefully could eventually be used throughout the hospital.
Sophie has now established a coin tin at Mildura Mixed Martial Arts, which will be used for ongoing fundraising for the comfort boxes.

Photograph: Sophie Maloney hands the fundraising cheque to MBH Palliative Care Nurses Telia Loci and Zoe Ashton