Lasting impact on hospice movement
TMarion Cooper nurse/hospice founder b May 12, 1932 d December 14, 2020
he trauma of watching a friend die from cancer set off a chain of events for Marion Cooper that would have a major impact on the hospice movement in New Zealand.
The only survivor of the original founders of Lower Hutt’s Te Omanga Hospice, Marion died, aged 88, on December 14.
Along with her husband, Max, and Sir Roy and Lady McKenzie, she founded Te Omanga in 1979.
With the government of the day refusing to provide financial help, the Coopers took out a mortgage against their home in Kelson, Lower Hutt, to open Te Omanga. At the opening, the McKenzies gave the hospice a cheque for $30,000 – enough to cover the wage bill for three months.
Te Omanga Hospice chief executive Biddy Harford says Marion’s contribution to palliative care cannot be overstated. ‘‘The legacy she left the Hutt Valley community and the hospice movement in New Zealand is immense, she was a remarkable woman.’’
As well as being the driving force behind its opening, Marion installed the culture and commitment to community palliative care and wha¯ nau support that still defines Te Omanga today.
‘‘She was an absolute visionary. The thing I admired most was her complete focus on the people we are caring for. She always said if we lose that focus, we are not doing what we are here for.’’
She was born Marion Dorothy Minifie in Masterton, and trained at Wairarapa Hospital. After graduating as a registered obstetric nurse in 1955, she worked in a number of hospitals in the lower North Island.
She married Max Cooper, a sharemilker and later a policeman and Rothmans executive, in 1956.
The couple had twins, who died shortly after birth, and Marion was surprised to learn first-hand just how little support there was for grieving parents in the New Zealand maternity system.
The impact of the loss of twins, and the later experience of seeing her friend die, instilled in Marion a belief in humanity and the need for death to be treated with dignity, which remained with her all her life.
In 1974, she established the Wellington and Hutt Valley Nurses’ Bureau, a private organisation that provided trained staff for relieving duties in private and surgical hospitals, and also domiciliary care to cancer patients and the elderly in their own homes.
At about this time Marion had an experience that would come to define her for the rest of her life.
A close friend and fellow nurse, Margaret, had terminal cancer and, despite her medical background, Marion was traumatised watching her die.
‘‘As I sat with Margaret, the effect of her medication had worn off and her distress caused by severe and unremitting pain tore at my heart,’’ she said many years later.
Marion asked the duty nurse for more pain relief for Margaret, but was tersely told it was not the time for her medication.
‘‘At her greatest hour of need and, after a gallant fight, I could not remove her pain nor help her have a peaceful and dignified death,’’ Marion wrote.
That led to her decision to set up Te Omanga and her lifelong commitment to providing the terminally ill with palliative care in their own homes.
For Marion, 1978 was a year of firsts. She approached the Wellington division of the Cancer Society with a proposal for the society to fund 70 hours of extended nursing care for terminal cancer patients, primarily in their own homes. The resulting funding agreement was the first of its kind in New Zealand.
In May of that year, she called a public meeting to push for a hospice. Expecting only a handful of people to respond, she was amazed when 200 turned up, which left her more determined than ever.
On September 6, 1979, Te Omanga Hospice’s seven-bed, in-patient unit was officially opened, with Marion as nursing director.
Five years later she achieved what was arguably her greatest accomplishment: providing patients with palliative care in their own homes.
Te Omanga was the first hospice in New Zealand to provide such outpatient community care. The model of supporting patients to remain with their wha¯ nau is now standard practice nationwide.
‘‘We didn’t feel you needed a clinical environment to provide good palliative care,’’ she told Stuff in 2011. ‘‘We wanted it to be like a home as much as possible.
‘‘What happened is that the services developed as patients showed us what they really needed. They pretty much had a great part in the teaching and the progress.’’
Marion stepped down as nursing director in 1997 and, in the years afterwards, held numerous roles on the board and as patron. In 2011, she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her contribution to the hospice movement, to go with the Queen’s Service Medal she was awarded in 1986.
Her influence today is still strong. Under her direction, in 2000 the board appointed current chief executive Biddy Harford, who last year completed a $10 million rebuild of the hospice’s Woburn base.
Son Peter Cooper says his mother lived and breathed Te Omanga.
Although she liked to garden, and particularly enjoyed roses, the hospice dominated her life.
‘‘She was just an honourable woman who dedicated all her life to helping people.’’
Marion was remembered at a service yesterday. Her commitment to her creation remained right to the end. In lieu of flowers, she requested donations to her beloved Te Omanga Hospice.
She is survived by sons Peter, Stephen and David.
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‘‘We didn’t feel you needed a clinical environment to provide good palliative care. We wanted it to be like a home as much as possible.’’