30 March 2023
A growing number of Hospice patients have non-cancer illnesses and our clinical staff come from a broad range of disciplines to ensure patients’ wide and varied palliative care needs are met. Harbour Hospice supports a growing number of local care providers who look after non-cancer patients.
Take a peek in David Seymour’s room at Maygrove Village Hospital in Orewa and you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of model cars on display. ‘Motoring enthusiast’ would be your first guess – and you’d be right. But what you wouldn’t realise is that these cars represent more than just a hobby. They reflect David’s choice every day to keep living.
David has Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and in the past five years it has robbed him of almost everything. Before his diagnosis he’d lived a full and active life as a successful real estate agent, juggling career with family life, keeping fit and collecting Mustang cars.
Now David lives in full-time residential care with the support of a Harbour Hospice Community Palliative Care Nurse.
David has lost all mobility except for the movement of his head. He has a good network of supportive friends and family and enjoys regular sessions with Harbour Hospice spiritual advisor Vincent Maire. But if it wasn’t for the thrill he gets from wheeling and dealing online to expand his collection, David might have given up on life. In fact, he made sure he’d one day have the choice.
David Seymour is a friend of David Seymour, the MP and he helped the MP prepare New Zealand’s End of Life Choice Bill referendum. “I endorsed it as a terminally ill person and I even ended up being the Act Party candidate for Whangarei in the 2020 election,” David says.
David was excited when the bill was passed, because it meant that people who were terminally ill like himself had some choice in when and how their life ended, enabling them to die on their own terms. But ironically, now he has that choice David chooses not to take it. "Choice is what it’s all about and right now I say yes to life. I get out of bed and check eBay to see what new listings there are. I enjoy visits from friends, my son, the grandchildren and I look forward to my visits from Vincent. "There are hard days. But there are enough good days to keep saying yes.”
Harbour Hospice has seen an 11% increase in the number of patients with a non-cancer illness since 2019
For more fascinating stories like David's go to our latest Impact Report.
