Shop closes but Hospice continues in Vryheid
The expenses for the house added up and it became too much compared to the income that the Hospice Charity Shop generated
It was with shock that the community learned about the closing of Hospice in town.
Hospice has been operating in Vryheid since 1986 and Cecilia van Wyk has been with the organisation for 18 years. A Vryheid Herald journalist contacted Cecilia regarding the closure and she explained it as follows: “The property of Hospice is in a trust, and the trustees decided to sell the house since Linda, who ran the day-to-day duties at the house, is about to retire. That would mean I am on my own. The money from the sale of the property will stay in the trust and it has to be used towards a Hospice. The expenses for the house added up and it became too much compared to the income that the Hospice Charity Shop generated. If the shop could continue to support the expenses, together with the bookshop, which generated a lot of our income, there wouldn’t have been a problem to keep the property and continue with the shop.”
Cecilia emphasises that Hospice is not closing down, and that it’s only the shop that’s closing down. She will continue taking care of terminally ill patients. “Hospice is, in actual fact, patient care and the shop only helped to generate funds. In every sense of the word, Hospice care is still operating like before.” Financial donations are still welcome and Cecilia can still be contacted to assist with terminally ill patients. She is available on 072 726 7133.
What does Hospice do?
Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life. Hospices are the only facilities in South Africa providing palliative care, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Hospice focuses on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure – affirming life and viewing death as a natural process. It seeks neither to speed up the dying process, nor postpone it.
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The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.
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