Personal Stories | Hospice North Shore - Auckland, NZ (Palliative Care)

You helped this family cope

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:31:08 +1300

Sarah and Dave Clifton are making the most of Hospice North Shore’s counselling service to help their children, Jasmine (6) and Jake (8), understand and cope with Sarah’s illness, but the care they are receiving from friends in your local community is nothing short of...

'Magical' mother-daughter time

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 17:01:11 +1300

Patricia Weiss’s introduction to Hospice was a lot sooner than she had envisaged, thanks to the intervention of her very proactive GP. Intervention for which Patricia is now very grateful. The shock diagnosis of secondary cancer in her spine in June this year, led...

"YOU SAVED MY LIFE"

Tue, 27 Sep 2016 12:21:21 +1300

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...

"YOU GAVE US A NEW, CARING FAMILY"

Tue, 19 Jul 2016 07:54:26 +1300

Wilma Maaka first met Alan at a bus stop. It was 18 March 2000: St Patrick’s Day. Wilma could see Alan was a little the worse for wear after a night on the jugs with his friends. But the two found themselves sitting together on the bus and they talked...

"Hospice is a gift"

Fri, 13 May 2016 22:49:45 +1300

“Mum’s really sick.” That’s what Melanie McLeod and her ex-husband told their two young boys late last year. “Doctors can’t make her better.” In five months, Melanie had gone from a vibrant, busy solo Mum of two to a shadow of her former self,...

"A dignified lady"

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 08:29:45 +1300

Connie Rynbeck is a dignified lady. Despite being very ill, she is fully engaged in the conversation I have with her and her daughters, as she sits up in her bed in Hospice North Shore’s inpatient unit. Short of breath, she allows her two daughters, Monique Nash...

"A kind man with a gentle soul"

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 10:40:42 +1300

I’ll always remember my husband Graham as a decent and kind man, with a warm, gentle soul. We first met in the 80’s in Chicago where we’d both been posted. Graham tried to impress me with a rendition of the mad old poem “The Lion and Albert” - it worked! I...

"Looking after Mum was a privilege"

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 09:01:01 +1300

This time last year, Bob and Jan Shaw were celebrating Bob’s recent retirement, looking forward to the year ahead, and relishing the time they now had to spend together with family and friends. They could have never have foreseen that just a few months later,...

"The missing cream doughnuts"

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 08:41:44 +1300

Ann Stanford is one courageous, resilient woman. In July 2014, Ann received the devastating news that her life would soon end. Yet, rather than spending her time dying, Ann was determined to live it instead - making the most of every day, right until the end....

"A huge, huge heart"

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:51:31 +1300

When Mum was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2005, it hit our close-knit, happy family out of nowhere. Mum was supportive, loving, caring and nurturing, a traditional mother who always put us first. Throughout Mum’s illness,...