Family raises funds for end of life care

IN MARCH, Nicola Stuart’s 40-year-old daughter Lorna was diagnosed with bowel cancer, further tests revealed it had metastasized to her liver, and on May 15, she passed away at home.
Ms Stuart said the diagnosis and subsequent loss of Lorna has been extremely hard on the family and Nicola’s eight-year-old son, but despite their loss, they are raising money and awareness for the Bellarine Community Health’s palliative care team.
“Palliative care is not just for older people. Before Lorna was diagnosed, I knew nothing about it. The cancer hit really quickly, we were never given a time frame but we knew it wasn’t going to be very long,” Ms Stuart said.
“Lorna hated being in hospital; particularly with COVID-19 going on, it wasn’t a nice place to be. She wanted to be home and involved with everyone; life still goes on and she wasn’t so isolated.”
Ms Stuart said thanks to BCH’s palliative care team the family were able to grant Lorna’s last wish, allowing her to die at home with dignity, surrounded by her family.
“We would all be around her, she was always involved in things, she never felt like she was on the sidelines. Her friends could come and see her and she loved that and that was important to her, she didn’t want to be looked at as someone who
was dying.”
Nicola has reached out to family and Lorna’s friends, many of whom live internationally, to raise funds for the BCH palliative care team. So far they’ve raised about $12,000 to help buy equipment and medical supplies.
“Medical supplies, dressings… they’re not something that is covered by Medicare when you’re not in the hospital. Also, equipment like special beds, toilet frames, wheelchairs all cost money. If the palliative care team have these things available to loan out, it takes a huge amount of the pressure off the family of the patient. I just want to know that the palliative care team can just go to their shelves and have the stock to make it seamless for them and seamless for those people dying.”
Bellarine Community Health receives federal and state funding for services and programs, but chief executive officer Shane Dawson said additional funds enhance the organisation’s ability to support people in the community.
“We are extremely thankful to Lorna’s family for their very generous support of our palliative care and community nursing team who work tirelessly to support members of the community in need, in their place of comfort.”
For Ms Stuart, she said all money raised stays on the Bellarine and helps local families.
“Nobody tells you about the costs involved with palliative care. We were fortunate we didn’t have to work but certainly there’s those who don’t have the spare cash.
“When you’re going through the trauma, the last thing you want to worry about if whether you have the money to enable a family member to die at home. I know Lorna would like that we’re raising awareness that palliative care isn’t just for older people while helping other families going through the same thing.”
For more information or to donate, head to https://www.bch.org.au/home.