26 June 2023
After 25 years Barbara Maitland has massaged a lot of feet at Harbour Hospice – and she loves it!
Touching people’s feet is not for everyone. But for volunteer Barbara Maitland, she can’t think of a better way to show someone she cares. Barbara began giving foot rubs to patients at Harbour Hospice’s North Shore Inpatient Unit 25 years ago after completing a course at night school and giving foot rubs to friends. A friend’s father – a trained masseuse - also taught her all he knew.
Barbara reckons she’s massaged thousands of feet over the years. She always chats with the patients as she works and says, “They just want to feel normal, they want to have a laugh.”
Patients invariably tell her that her foot rubs help them relax. Some even fall asleep! "I had one patient who was having a lot of trouble with her breathing so a nurse asked me to go in. I was able to calm her right down then, all of a sudden, her breathing went back to normal. Afterwards one of the doctors thanked me and that made me feel really good because they’d recognised that what I was doing was helping.”
Barbara says offering this care “gives more to me than I give to the patients”.
“They show their courage and they’ve still got their sense of humour. They give me strength to do what Ido for them.
“It’s always a privilege go to in – even if I only give one massage that day. If that person really needed a massage that day then I’ve been there for them, and that’s all that matters.”
