Charity workers prioritise palliative care
The generosity of a Wimmera charity store will support Grampians Health patients in palliative care in Horsham.
Craft for a Cause shop in Mclachlan Street has donated $5000 to Horsham’s palliative-care team for a portable oxygen concentrator.
Volunteers, with help from the Uniting Church, operate the shop, selling Wimmera-made craft work, homemade produce and plants.
Shop manager Jan Morris said the store relied on stock from more than 100 district suppliers.
“We sell their items for them and keep 25 percent, which is then donated to a cause that we choose,” she said.
Horsham-based Grampians Health palliative-care nurse Jody Membrey said the donation would be a great support to patients.
“Palliative patients generally have an oxygen concentrator at home to keep up their oxygen levels, but they can’t take that with them to appointments,” she said.
However, the patients can borrow the portable device from our team when they have an appointment so they can still maintain their oxygen flow.”
Ms Membrey said the donation came at the right time because a previous device had stopped working.
“It’s good to have one again and would be even better to have a back-up one,” she said.
“We are thankful to Jan and the volunteers at Craft for a Cause because a portable oxygen concentrator is a big expense for these people at what is already a difficult time in their lives.”