Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Lions Clubs throughout Australia have a very proud history of achievement in disaster and emergency relief, medical research and community service. They were at the coalface of Cyclone Tracy, the Black Saturday bushfires and the Queensland floods. Lions were also involved with the development of the bionic ear and the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil. They also work to provide funding for a range of other research initiatives involving diabetes and autism. Lions assist with local community fundraising for special causes and help with the development and building of local parks, community venues and sporting centres.

Today, I would like to acknowledge the Tuggerah Shores Lions Club—of which I am proud to be a lioness—who have a very special fundraising project named Elsie's Dream. Elsie's Dream is a vision about building a hospice village for the Central Coast's terminally ill. The project is the dream of lioness Oana McBride who lost her close friend Elsie to cancer. The members of Tuggerah Shores Lions Club want to make sure that people, particularly young people, have the option to die with dignity surrounded by friends and family in a caring environment, and the Tuggerah Shores Lions Club recently held a successful fundraising event at the Wyong Race Club that was supported by many local businesses.

It is believed that around 70 per cent of Australians want to die at home, but only 16 per cent actually do so. People in regional areas, such as the Central Coast, and rural areas are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to palliative care services. Many people do not have a choice when it comes to where they will die. And while home is best it is not always an option.

Elsie's village hospice will provide choice for those facing this situation. The hospice village will consist of six specially built cottages, with an administration block, communal hall, swimming pool, children's playground and sensory garden. These will be private cottages where family and friends can be with their loved ones and stay and care for them. They will have a laundry, and kitchen facilities, so that families can cook and eat together just as they would do at home. The layout of the hospice will be that of a village. Each cottage is stand-alone and will look out on a communal garden, swimming pool and children's playground. The sensory garden and barbeque areas will feature special purpose-built paths to accommodate beds and wheelchair access.

Families will still be the predominant carers. Patients will have access to palliative care nurses, with their own doctors visiting the hospice as they would do at home. Referrals to the hospice will be made by hospitals, GPs or other healthcare services helping the terminally ill. This hospice village will provide families the opportunity of spending precious time with their loved ones in a home-like environment. This facility has the capacity to change lives for many and to provide greater choice in the way a terminally ill patient spends their final days, as well as making memories of good times to be remembered forever.

I support Elsie's Dream and encourage the local community to lend their support to this vision, and to support the Tuggerah Shores Lions Club in this worthwhile and much-needed facility for the Central Coast.