High praise for volunteers from former Lake Taupō Hospice patient

Former hospice patient Joy Elizabeth Wall-Peachy (right) says hospice makes the patients strong. She is pictured with husband and hospice volunteer-in-training Leslie Joseph Peachy.

The patients see the volunteers arrive on Tuesday and know the party is about to begin, says former Lake Taupō Hospice patient Joy Elizabeth Wall-Peachy.

Joy, 67, says the highlight of her week was socialising at hospice every Tuesday and Friday and she places the success of these days squarely with the volunteers.

"I can't say enough about [how wonderful] the volunteers are."

She says lots of people go to hospice from rest homes around the district. Initially, Joy didn't want to go to hospice when she was diagnosed with cancer and says she had little understanding of what hospice had to offer. She says a relative prompted husband Leslie Joseph Peachy (Les) to take her one day.

"She said, 'you go down and tell our aunty if she doesn't come up [to hospice] I will go down and get her'."

Les says there is a misconception in the community that hospice is a place to go to die. He says that is incorrect and says hospice is a place to go and live the rest of your life.

Hospice staff member Fiona McDougall runs the hospice Tuesday programme. "Fiona, she is the bomb. Every week during lockdown she rang each and every patient," said Les Peachy. photo / Supplied

Joy has now been discharged from hospice as her stomach cancer has become benign, news she received just before the country went into Covid-19 level four lockdown.

She was a hospice patient for two years and says she is really going to miss the volunteers who she says were always there for her and Les,

"The volunteers go and pick people up, they drop them off. They take them to the doctor, they make meals, they do everything," says Joy.

She says an important underlying role of the volunteers' job is to take the patients' minds off dying.

Les says hospice is there for the whole family, not just for the person who is dying, and he wants to give back because it helped his wife and family so much. He is following through by training to become a Lake Taupō hospice volunteer.

The couple both laugh about how much fun they had at the hospice's recent mid-winter Christmas party. Joy says the other patients love Les and scrap to get to sit at their table.

"Cos we are so loud! And because Les is really good at the quiz."

Lake Taupō Hospice asked Joy whether she would like to be a volunteer when she left, but she said no because she finds it hard when she makes friends and then they die.

"I am a sook. I can't stand losing a friend again and again and again."

Joy has high praise for the staff members,

"If you are sick, the staff care. They helped my husband as well and he was just there with me.

"Hospice makes the patients strong, they have your back. Then you go home and your family has your back. If it wasn't for them and my faith in God I don't know where I would be," said Joy.

It has been Joy's experience that people are upset about the thought of dying and she says hospice helped her to talk through her depression. Commonly patients are told they have six months to live, then they live for nine months - and Joy says this situation plays games with your mind.

"At the start [first diagnosed as terminal] there are two choices, denial or be depressed. I was depressed about leaving behind my family. I prayed a lot as well and left it in God's hands. The social worker there, she said 'cry, cry, cry, let it all out', she was so lovely," said Joy.

"It also helps to have the backing of a good oncologist," said Les.

For now, the couple are planning for Les to go back to work and Joy says she is working on building up her courage to leave home more. She takes a lot of medicine for her heart, doesn't drive and says now her cancer is benign she needs to learn to let go of her need for Les.

Celebrating National Volunteer Week

Lake Taupō Hospice community services provides a holistic approach, supporting patients and their family/whānau and friends. Currently hospice has 87 patients in its care.

Recently the annual Volunteers Appreciation Party was held. Lake Taupo Hospice chief executive Michele Thomas says the volunteer workforce saves hospice $600,000 each year.

"Volunteers truly are the heart of hospice," said Michele.

She said hospice was currently in a funding crisis, due to the effects of Covid-19.

"We are having to turn to you, our community, for support."

If you are in a position to make a donation, it has never been more needed. Michele says a donation of any size makes the world of difference to patients and families.

Donations can be made at www.laketaupohospice.co.nz/online-donation.