The seeds for establishing and growing the Hospice movement on the Sunshine Coast were sown in 1985. As was the situation when the movement started in the United Kingdom, the beginnings of Hospice on the Coast were directly linked with a single terminally ill patient. And also as was the situation in the U.K. a small group of compassionate people felt this patient had not received the appropriate palliative care and they took the first tentative steps not knowing where it would lead.

Shortly after a committee was formed with the first objective being to seek out information about Hospice and palliative care. They spent two years attending workshops in the Lower Mainland, going to meetings and visiting people in Powell River who had a palliative care program already in place. The group was particularly interested in understanding pain control and to increase their knowledge, they would go on doctors’ rounds.

The first BC Hospice opened in Victoria in 1980.

In 1987 the first group of Sunshine Coast volunteers was trained. This group included Peggy Cotgrave, Mary Macdonald and Rosemary Hoare and we began providing services on the Coast in 1987. These founding volunteers remain active in the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society today.

During the beginning stages of the Hospice program funding was nonexistent and it was Rosemary along with Heather Blackwell who together took on the roles of Hospice Coordinator. At that time the program operated under the umbrella of the Home Support Services. This helped the program immensely as it provided coordinators with access to phones, photocopying and other administrative services.

In the year 1999 the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society was established as a non-profit society with seven board members. Today our board consists of 11 members who each have varying roles in the administration and management of the Society.

Ongoing training, which has always been a fundamentally important aspect of the program, continued as the volunteers received training in complimentary care such as therapeutic touch from nurses at Lions Gate Hospital. Presently our Volunteer Coordinator Jean Rice develops and conducts the 30 hour training program, as required, and which are held annually for our new volunteers. The training program includes both palliative and bereavement instruction. These programs are supplemented with monthly education meetings as well as workshops held both locally and in the Lower Mainland. Presently we have 41 active volunteers whose role it is to support palliative patients in our Hospice, hospital or at home. In addition, we offer bereavement support to those who have lost a loved one.

Funding was very limited in the early days. To illustrate the commitment and innovativeness of the fledgling group and their families the first Hospice brochure was printed from the funds collected by Heather’s son who one summer spent his time collecting beer and pop cans from around Trout Lake. The next stage of development for the Sunshine Coast Hospice was to arrange for dedicated palliative care rooms on the second floor of St. Mary’s Hospital with funds to aquire furnishings coming from another volunteer group, St. Mary’s Women’s Auxiliary.

When the second floor of St. Mary’s was closed the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society, in 2001, began to support the cost of two Hospice rooms at the Gibsons Garden Inn. These rooms were used for the terminally ill until late 2005 when three rooms were renovated at Shroncliffe from funds raised throughout the community by the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society, creating two palliative care rooms and an adjoining family room. Our fundraising also provided funding for furnishing the rooms.

Fundraising is mainly supported by donations from individuals, organizations, grants, memorial donations and from our Lights of Life program.

The Lights of Life program is an annual event held during the holiday season in both Sechelt and Gibsons offering the public an opportunity to ‘remember a loved one’. The blue bulb on the tree is replaced with a white one; at the same time a memory card is placed beside the white bulb on the Christmas tree. On January 1st we hold our “Lighting the Memories” ceremony at which time our memory cards are placed on the bonfire. This annual event is held at 2pm in Snickett Park, Sechelt. This ceremony is followed by a sharing time where participants enjoy apple cider, cookies and a time of fellowship with one another.

Lighting the Memories
Christine Wood Photo/courtesy Coast Reporter.

It is the dream of our Hospice volunteers and our board members to one day establish a free-standing Hospice here on the Coast. We would not only have a number of palliative rooms available and a large family room, but also rooms where we could hold our in-service and board meetings, training, workshops, office and a garden for our palliative patients and their families to enjoy.

You can be a part of making this dream happening by donating to the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society – just look to the right of this page for ways you can donate, including online through CanadaHelps.org, via a one-time or monthly donations. Receipts are provided for all donations over $20 where requested.