Hospice Awareness Week: What would you do with months left to live?

Hospice North Shore chief executive Jan Nichols. Photo / Natalie Slade

What would you do if you had only months left to live?

It's a question being put to residents of Auckland's North Shore as part of Hospice Awareness Week, which starts tomorrow.

Hospice North Shore is putting blackboards up across the area inviting locals to share what they would do if they had just months to live, with the hope of engaging residents of all ages to think about what is important to them; inspiring them to do what matters.

"Many of the people for whom we care find that their illness helps them focus on what is really important," Hospice North Shore chief executive Jan Nichols said.

"We believe the advice to live every moment is relevant to everyone, regardless of their age or state of health."

The hospice has celebrities including Sol3 Mio's Moses Mackay, actor Shane Cortese and Hospice North Shore patron Judy Bailey on board to help push the message.

During the week-long campaign, each celebrity will reveal what he or she would do if they had just months to live.

The video will be on the North Shore Hospice website www.hospicenorthshore.org.nz and Facebook page

The hospice is asking people to consider donating this week, as the organisation relies heavily on fundraising.

North Shore residents can donate by adding $1 to their shopping bill at New World and Pak 'n Save supermarkets across the North Shore, as well as by dropping spare change into collection buckets at shopping centres, or donating online.

The blackboards can be found at hospice shops in Devonport, Birkenhead, Wairau Park, Glenfield, Takapuna, Milford, Browns Bay and Albany.

Hospice North Shore gives free care to people who are dying, and to their families, mainly in their own homes.

The charity provides physical, emotional and spiritual support that is possible only because of the generosity of the local community.