Hospice foundation to conduct fundraiser

PETALING JAYA: Imagine suffering from a terminal illness and having nobody to care for you. The overwhelming sense of hopelessness may be too much for some.

But fear not. At hand to help is Kasih Hospice Foundation, which was started in 1997 by a monk, the Venerable Pende Hawter, who is also the founder of Karuna Hospice in Brisbane, Australia, and Dr Rosalie Shaw, a surgeon and palliative care consultant, who was also the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network president at the time.

Its president and director Datuk Dr Goh Pik Pin said it costs an average of RM300 to provide a single home visit or RM1.7 million annually. The cost includes the provision of doctors and nurses visiting patients at home to manage pain and other physical symptoms.

It also provides support for families and basic skills for caregivers, loaning them medical equipment and assisting with their psychosocial, emotional and spiritual needs. However, like most non-profit organisations, the hospice requires funds to pay for its operations, since it provides all its services free of charge.

Goh said Kasih Hospice is having a fundraising event Shave for Kasih 2.0, at 10am on March 4 at its centre in Petaling Jaya. The event will be held in collaboration with its long-time supporter, Dell Technologies, to provide hospice care for cancer and kidney failure patients.

“Helping, Caring, Healing is our theme for this year and it accurately describes the work that our foundation does,” he said.

He added that some 40 volunteers are expected to shave their heads bald to raise funds for the hospice. It held its first head-shaving event in 2020 and received a lot of support. This time around and to make the event successful, Kasih Hospice has hired 20 ambassadors to help promote its initiatives.

“We are very pleased to partner with Dell again. This year we hope to raise RM250,000 so we can continue to provide hospice care to stage four cancer and end-stage kidney failure patients and their families and to help them where we can.

“We are calling on the public to support us. Come and shave your heads bald to raise funds. For those who may not want to shave but would still like to contribute, you may pledge to just cut about six inches or more of your hair to be donated to Locks of Hope,” Goh said.

Those who wish to support via a donation can do so to Yayasan Kasih Hospis, Public Bank account no: 3146-9095-14. For more information, please visit www.kasihhospice.org or call
03-7865 6522.

from Highlights https://ift.tt/ZpCQdwL
via IFTTT