1 July 2024
In Malaysia it’s traditional for a daughter to look after her parents as they age and lose their health. But for Sue Chau, from Orewa, this was impossible when her father became ill. She had emigrated to New Zealand and had a young family to care for.
Not being able to be there for her father was distressing for Sue. So, years later, when she found out about hospice services on the Hibiscus Coast she saw volunteering for hospice as a way of making up for the care she couldn’t provide her dad. “It became my way of giving back,” she says.
This month Sue, 63, will be recognised for five years’ service at Harbour Hospice’ Long Service Awards. Sue volunteers at Harbour Hospice’s Orewa shop and, for three years, contributed on its Hibiscus Coast Advisory Board. She launched and ran the Orewa Asian Food and Cultural Festival from 2019 until Covid and unpredictable weather made the event too stressful for her to continue to run.
Sue says she started the festival because she wanted to raise awareness in the Asian community about hospice. “The majority of Chinese people think that hospice is just a second-hand shop. They don’t realise that the shops are there to raise funds to run a healthcare service that is there for everybody at the end of life.”
Sue still tries to educate the Asian community through talking to people when they come into the shop. “I want Asian people to understand that hospice can help them look after their parents; that hospice can go into their homes and give them a break.”
Harbour Hospice social worker Natalie He agrees that “it will still take some time for the wider Asian community to have a good understanding of the Hospice service.
“But I am noticing that there have been an increasing number of requests from Asian clients and their families for Hospice care,” she says.
Part of Natalie’s role is to engage with local social support services to facilitate a cooperative approach to promoting Hospice services - and with support from people like Sue, Natalie says that job is made just a little bit easier.
This story was first published in the July 2024 Millwater Magazine.
