Meet the caring Rena Licen
'Sometimes many of the patients just need support and understanding, we don't always know what they are going through and it would not be of any help to judge anyone'
Rena Licen was born in a small town close to Dundee and completed her matric in Hermannsburg. Rena is the youngest of six children. After school she worked at Grey’s Hospital and qualified after four years. She then met her husband in Estcourt and after some travelling the Licen family settled in Estcourt in 1990. Rena then worked at the Estcourt Provincial Hospital for six years, until starting a family.
Once her eldest was three years of age she joined the Estcourt Hospice Association. When Rena had her twins she left Hospice to be at home with her children. When the twins started school, Rena then worked at Medical Hall Pharmacy for three years. In 2012 she re-joined Hospice, as the Clinical Manager. Rena now runs the Hospice Association, and has to work in several different roles, as seven employees were sadly retrenched late last year due to a lack of funding. In the next five years, two of Rena’s three children will be in high school, so she would like to support them, she would also like to see Hospice up and running, working hand-in-hand with the Department of Health.
Over the years working with patients suffering not only from life threatening illnesses but social and emotional pain, Rena has learnt that one should not judge a book by its cover.  “Sometimes many of the patients just need support and understanding, we don’t always know what they are going through and it would not be of any help to judge anyone. Be caring and listen, this will reap rewards,” affirmed Rena. Rena’s priority lies with her family and she supports her children both at school and on the sports field. Rena finds it rewarding to see that she can assist someone get through a difficult situation with support and encouragement, during home-based care visits, which Hospice conducts.
Rena is a strong believer that no one should die in pain. The Estcourt Hospice Association practices Palliative Care, which is an approach that promotes and improves the best quality of life for patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
