Renae Kilmister has started her new role as fundraising and communications manager for Hospice Whanganui

Renae Kilmister, new fundraising and communications manager for Hospice Whanganui.

Renae Kilmister has just started her new role as fundraising and communications manager for Hospice Whanganui, having moved back to her hometown of Whanganui 18 months ago from Australia.

A gap year stretched out to be a 20-year stint, working in Cairns, Melbourne, Sydney and finally, Canberra for the last 10 years when Kilmister joined the health sector.

She has worked in indigenous health for the last seven years, with communications and various media including, social media, graphic design, websites as well as events, such as running national conferences.

Having studied photography, she was able to assist with photography packages from her portrait studio for fundraising for Diabetes Canberra, where she spent hours volunteering regularly. This led to a job offer from Diabetes ACT in Canberra as a paid role, which progressed to several “job poaches” within the indigenous health sector.

“I was able to work remotely with this role, which helped when I needed to return home to New Zealand,” said Kilmister.

“After 20 years away, I returned home to Whanganui, to be with my family, with my 12-year-old niece, and I also recently got married to a Whanganui boy I’ve known most of my life. I’m now enjoying reconnecting with the Whanganui community.

“My uncle passed away six months ago at 66 years of age. I had come home in time to help take care of him while working remotely at my job. With his two daughters, one had just had a baby and the other had a new job.

“For us it was a rotation of taking care of uncle, the baby and each other, working as a team.

“The Hospice Whanganui team would come around every day, to top up medications and the syringe driver. The team supported us in so many ways and we were able to confidently care for him.

“My uncle wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else but home, with his dog next to him, surrounded by family. The Hospice team made this possible. We could access them 24 hours a day, even with small matters such as changing batteries for the syringe driver. They were familiar faces, and reassuring, they were incredible.

“When this job was advertised, it was my cousin who saw the role and sent it to me. She said ‘I just feel you need to do this’. After what we’d been through, it meant I could give back, we’d already been thinking of what we could do to help Hospice.

“Only 50 per cent of funding is provided by the government, I wasn’t aware of that. Talking to the nurses, they said they rely heavily on fundraising - we were so shocked, as we so desperately need this service.

“I thought ‘can I do it justice?’ I want to make it happen so other people in the community can get the same vital care that we did. The people at Hospice are working for a purpose, you can sense such great empathy from the team, and they wear their hearts on their sleeves.

“Everybody wraps around each other here, it’s so supportive, and the leadership is amazing. It’s a big contrast to the fast-paced, corporate and political world I’d just been working in in Australia.

“I’m excited for the journey ahead and so honoured to be working with such an awesome bunch of people who all give so much. Watch this space Whanganui!” Kilmister said.