Gearing up to serve the community

NEWMARKET – Little by little the Stepping Stone Hospice and Care Service is filling up the empty spaces to ensure that the hospice is fully operational and ready to serve the community.

So when then truck arrived with much needed tables, chairs and coffee tables, it was big smiles all around.

The latest edition to the Hospice was a donation of two tables with four chairs each for the games room, as well as six coffee tables for the patient’s resting room, courtesy Ascot Bedding and Furniture and the Alberton RECORD.

Stepping Stone celebrated its official opening on October 9 at the AMCARE premises and is the first of its kind in Alberton to serve the community. A place to give peace and rest to terminally ill patients in their last days.

People often wonder why a hospice is needed. The words of Dr Sylvia Rodriquez, well-known oncologist at the Clinton Clinic Oncology Centre who attended Stepping Stone’s opening, explains it all: “There are misperceptions on what a Hospice offers and it is important for both the patient and family understand that palliative care can give the patient a better quality of life. It is a well-known fact that a terminally-ill patient can live longer under the care of Hospice.”

The hospice receives no government funding and is totally reliant upon the generosity of the community, public sector and fundraising events. Still outstanding on their wish list is a dishwasher, microwave and television set.

For any further information of if you wish to donate to the Stepping Stone Hospice, kindly contact them on 011 869 5856 or 076 631 6998.