Hike for Hospice will help the dying live better

With the province's first hospice now ready for occupancy, money raised from this weekend's Hike for Hospice fundraiser, will help pay for some much-needed programs and services.

"Funds raised by Hike for Hospice 2010 will contribute greatly to our goals, along with increasing public awareness of issues surrounding end-of-life care,"said Carolyn Fougere of the Hospice Society of Greater Halifax.

This year's annual hike takes place Sunday, May 2 and starts at the Bedford hospice at 9 Spring St. The four-kilometre walk runs from Spring Street to the Bedford Highway to Bedford Place Mall and back.

For registration information, call 446-0929 or email hospiceeastlink.ca.

In November, the not-for-profit community-based organization received welcome news. Following a public hearing, Halifax regional council agreed to sell Bedford's Teachery building on Spring Street to the hospice society for $5,000.

Since then, the city has readied the building for occupancy by repairing some leaky plumbing pipes, and other maintenance before the sale closed.

The registered heritage property will become the first hospice in Nova Scotia.

Built in 1892 by George Canfield for Oswald and Isabella Pryor, the Teachery building was owned by the Pryor family until it was purchased by the Bedford Ratepayers Association in 1942. It became known as The Teachery because the association rented the property to local teachers.

The building has been leased to community organizations for the past 30 years and included a residential unit on the second floor. It was deemed surplus by HRM in 2008.

With keys now in hand, the society hopes to move its bereavement program out of space leased on Spring Garden Road into the new hospice by June.

"It's still rudimentary out there, we still have a lot of work to do," Fougere said.

Not only does the building need to be painted, but the electrical wiring has to be updated as well.

The downstairs of the home will be used for offices and programming, while hospice rooms will eventually be developed upstairs in the four-bedroom home.

The bedrooms will be equipped to care for the dying, and when space allows, family members.

Hospice palliative care provides physical, psychological, social, spiritual and practical support to people living with life-threatening illness, as well as their loved ones and the bereaved.

The group also hopes to offer day hospice services which gives patients a place to go for support and recreation, and offers caregivers at home a break.

Fougere knows all too well how valuable hospice services can be for a family.

Fougere's husband Scott, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was cared for at a hospice in British Columbia during his last week of life.

"For us it was a relief not having to care for his medical condition. We could just be with him, spend the time with him," said Fougere.

1. Canada's population is aging: over the next 40 years demands for hospice palliative care will dramatically increase.

2. Each year more than 259,000 Canadians die.

3. Statistics Canada projects that the rate of deaths in Canada will increase by 33 per cent by the year 2020 to more than 330,000 deaths per year.

4. Hospice palliative care programs allow patients to gain more control over their lives, manage pain and symptoms more effectively, and provide support to informal caregivers.

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