Page 30 - Sphere No.23 (Dec 2008)

28 SPHERE
cancer. Many have to endure levels of physical pain and emo-
tional strain that are difficult for families and friends to under-
stand. Angela Lau does – she has had cancer.
Angela became a Hospice Ambassador at the Pamela Youde
Nethersole Eastern Hospital three years ago after retiring from
the civil service. Then she discovered that fate had handed her
an even greater challenge – she was to become a patient at the
same hospital where she was doing volunteer work.
“In December last year, I got Stage II breast cancer,” she said.
“I could not accept the reversal of roles. My emotions were on a
roller-coaster ride. The therapy was a long and painful journey.”
Despite the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy treat-
ment, she faced those difficult times with optimism. “There were
certain advantages in being a patient. I could behave like a spoilt
child. I had always taken care of others and now it was the time to
give myself a treat,” she said with a chuckle. Now, as a former pa-
tient, she has a complete understanding of how patients feel. For
example, those receiving chemotherapy suffer frommouth sores,
their sense of taste is altered and they can become irritable.
The Hospice Programme features important elements of
modern cancer therapy. From the moment patients are diag-
nosed with terminal cancer, their physical, emotional, social
and spiritual needs are all taken care of. Volunteers who take
on the role of a “spiritual friend”, a comforter and supporter to
the patient, are an indispensable part of hospice care.
Let your feelings flow
Human beings have no control over when they die, but they
can choose how they die. One of the key concepts of palliative
care is allowing patients to go through the final stages of their
lives in peace and with dignity. Fiona Yu, another volunteer at
the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital’s day care hos-
pice centre, has a profound understanding of this concept.
Fiona used to work in the government’s Judiciary Depart-
ment. Court work was stressful and although her body was
already sending out warning signs, she did not leave her job
until her mother, who was over 90, was diagnosed with bowel
cancer. “If I could not be by her side on her final journey, I
would live to regret it,” Fiona said. In the last nine months of
her mother’s life, Fiona was with her every day.
Mother and daughter talked about all sorts of things; they
were even comfortable talking about death. Her mother gave
detailed instructions about the kind of final rites she wanted
and what she wanted to wear at her own funeral. “I came to
the realisation that we ought to make good use of the time that
is left to have good conversations with the person who is dy-
ing. Only then would there be no regrets when the time comes,
both for the living and the dead,” she said.
After her mother passed away, Fiona began work as a Hos-
pice Ambassador and it was then that she came to the conclu-
sion that the Chinese are too emotionally reserved, which im-
pedes their abilities to communicate with one another.
“We are very mean to our families. We only lose our tempers
with those who are closest to us,” Fiona observed. “When mem-
bers of our families help us, we seldom thank them because we
HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED
A LTHOUGH Hong Kong has one of the best pub-
lic healthcare systems in the world, it lacks a
palliative care service. For this reason, the Li Ka
Shing Foundation launched the “Heart of Gold” Hospice
Programme in Hong Kong.
In 1998, the Foundation made a donation to the First
Affiliated Hospital of the Shantou University Medical Col-
lege to set up the first free hospice on the mainland to as-
sist financially strapped patients with terminal cancer. The
hospice service programme now operates nationwide,
benefiting more than 70,000 patients in 28 hospices.
In October last year, the Heart of Gold programme was
expanded to include Hong Kong. The Foundation worked
with the territory’s HospitalAuthority to promote the Hos-
pice Service Programme in public hospitals.The programme
has now expanded to cover the whole of Hong Kong and,
so far, eight day-care hospice centres have been set up.
To date, the Foundation’s total contributions to this
programme in the Mainland and Hong Kong exceeds
HKD240 million.