Page 2734 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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and do adopt a non-partisan approach in fostering their wonderful community activities.
As we get older, particularly for men, it is easy for us to lose connection with networks and to become isolated. I do not think we can underestimate the enormous value of the Men’s Shed in reconnecting and supporting retired men and giving them meaningful activity, enabling them to enjoy their lives. Walking through the Men’s Shed on a busy Thursday morning, as I did, felt like being in Santa’s toy workshop, but the workers looked more like Santa than they did the elves.
I would also like to make mention of one of the best schools in my electorate. There are many wonderful schools, but I speak in particular of Holy Family at Gowrie. I was there as a guest very recently, along with Senator Zed Seselja, my colleague Ms Lawder and the Catholic Archbishop for Canberra-Goulburn, Christopher Prowse, for the opening of a new classroom. Holy Family got a boost with some funding from the feds which they were most grateful for, but they also raised a large sum off their own bat, and they are to be commended, Madam Assistant Speaker.
I did want to register here that every interaction that I have ever had with Holy Family has been exceptional. Everyone from the principal, Mrs Marek, down to the tiniest of students has always been wonderful. I am sure that the students at Holy Family are not always on their best behaviour, but they certainly go to great lengths to always put their best foot forward when visitors come to the school. And the food on offer for the morning tea was out of this world. I want to know who made the sausage rolls. I look forward to the Holy Family fete on November 25 between 10 am and 2 pm.
Palliative Care ACT—fundraising
Pigeonhole Theatre
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (5.54): What will you leave behind when you die? What do you want to be remembered for? And will the challenges that you have overcome, your proudest moments and the lessons you have learned, be passed on to your friends and family? These are not easy questions to answer, and they are certainly confronting. But they are the questions that Palliative Care ACT volunteers help dying Canberrans grapple with every day.
On 9 August I attended a fundraising breakfast for Palliative Care ACT on behalf of the Chief Minister. The breakfast coincided with Dying To Know Day on 8 August. Palliative care has as its primary aim not the cure of disease but improving the quality of life of patients, and their families, as they face life-threatening illness. Palliative care aims to prevent and relieve suffering, not only physical suffering but also psychosocial and spiritual suffering. The reality is that for some people death will be a slow and painful process. We cannot avoid that, but we can ease their pain and suffering. Palliative Care ACT does an excellent job in helping Canberrans through some of the toughest battles of their lives.
One service Palliative Care ACT is relaunching is the life stories program. This program will help those in palliative care to record their life story. The process will help people to see the bigger picture and remind them of what they have achieved in
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