Jack Maddox is sharp as a tack and twice as shiny.
His wit, humour and personality positively sparkle. He is a commanding presence.
It was in April this year when pain and internal bleeding from Jack’s prostate cancer were taking their toll. He couldn’t eat. He was deathly pale, weak and in a great deal of pain. His trademark spark was gone. His devoted wife Jeanette was exhausted and fast approaching the end of her very long tether.
The nurse who came to visit decided both Jack and Jeanette would benefit from Jack having a week in Hospice’s inpatient unit (IPU).
The couple were surprised by the brightness and warmth with which they were greeted; from their arrival at reception through to the volunteers who plied Jack with dishes to tempt back his waning appetite.
“I was treated like a King!” says Jack.
“The difference,” he says, “is in the little things; the friendliness of volunteers and staff alike; the peace and quiet; the time people have to really talk to you… and the special meals that finally stopped me losing weight.”
After a week in the unit, Jack went home feeling like a new man. “I arrived in a wheel chair; weak, in pain and having lost 20kgs. I left pushing that damn thing, pain free and I’d even gained a bit of weight back.”
His spark was back.
Meanwhile Jeanette, too, is deeply grateful for all the services you make possible; both for patients and carers.
Months of caregiving wore Jeanette out; both physically and emotionally. And, as is often the case, it was once he was being cared for in IPU that she succumbed to illness herself.
“It is very hard caring for someone you love when they are so ill,” says Jeanette. “I hate being apart from him, so being able to be with him each day in the inpatient unit was wonderful.”
Both Jack and Jeanette continue to accept with gratitude the support of nurses who call and visit regularly to check on him.
Jeanette’s weekly caregivers group offers support and information to help her cope with the stress of being Jack’s carer.
Meanwhile Jack is a regular in the weekly Day Group for patients: and a highly entertaining member of the group, by all accounts.
Asked what he would like to say to the supporters who make Hospice possible, Jack takes a moment to think.
“You bring two ‘Cs’: Comfort and Caring…”
“… You turned my life around…. No you SAVED my life,” he finishes emphatically.
