Nobel prize nominee talks on ‘fire in the belly’
KUCHING: Prof Dr Anne Merriman, Hospice Africa founder and current director of Policy and International Programmes, has been busy delivering talks since landing here.
On Sunday, Dr Merriman – a pioneer in palliative care in Uganda and Singapore – spoke to some 40 people at Two Tree Lodge Hospice Kuching about having ‘fire in the belly’, or having a powerful sense of ambition or determination.
Two Tree Lodge Hospice was founded to support patients with advanced cancer and their families in their end-of-life journey by providing hospice home care support.
Dr Merriman came here upon the invitation of Lily Ling, a counselor and co-founder of Two Tree Lodge Hospice, where she delivered lectures and talks, and made visits to places the Palliative Care Ward ( PCW) at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
Nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in palliative care, she was in Kuching for the fi rst time.
Her talk at the hospice office was to encourage participants to look within themselves and fi nd the spark that drives them to help those who are suffering.
“Fire in the belly in palliative care is seeing the suffering and resolving to do something about it,” she said.
Dr Merriman later told The Borneo Post that Kuching has a great prospect for being a model in palliative care for all of Malaysia.
“I think you’re getting there because you got all these people who really are inspired. As long as they get the government and senior doctors onboard, I think it’s going to move very fast,” she said.
Under her leadership in the past 25 years, Uganda’s palliative care services have emerged as the goldstar standard in all of Africa.
In the Lien Foundation 2015 Quality of Death Index, Uganda ranked at 35th in the world for palliative care, while Malaysia ranked at 38th.
Dr Merriman pointed out that Malaysia does not suffer from the economic difficulties that Uganda has.
“The money is there, and people are generous and caring. I think you have a great prospect of being a model for all of Malaysia.”
Ling, meanwhile spoke on educating everyone about palliative care.
“Everybody needs to learn about palliative care. We’re all dying. We need to know what is good death, rather than scrambling around when we get there,” she said, adding that people put so much thought and research into where to go for further studies, but few make the same effort when it comes to end- of-life affairs.
Palliative care is about holistic care and symptom management so that the patient can get the best quality of life and really live until the end of their days.
“It’s a misconception that palliative care is about waiting to die,” said Dr Winnie Ling, Two Tree Lodge Hospice co-founder and part time visiting consultant Medical Oncologist at Normah Specialist Medical Centre.
“We are talking about holistic care and symptoms management. The focus is not about dying, but about controlling their symptoms whether it’s physical, emotional, psychosocial or spiritual.
“That is our hope. Once their symptoms are controlled, they can concentrate on living and having quality of life till the end, however long or short that may be.”
Patient referral to the hospice is via their respective oncologists only. There are only five oncologists in Kuching, said Dr Ling, and they are aware of the hospice.
“If they have suitable patients, they will refer them to us. We are for patients on advanced cancer, who are no longer on active cancer treatment.” Palliative care as a general principle is, of course, not exclusive to cancer patients. There are other illnesses that can benefit from palliative care, but resources are limited, said Dr Ling.
“Because I’m an oncologist, at the moment, we are only concentrating on patients with advanced cancer. We work closely with other NGOs such as the National Cancer Society Sarawak Branch. They also have a home care service like us. There is Kuching Life Care; they support people, and have their own ambulance.
“The aim is just to minimise the hassle for patients with chronic illness,” she said.
“Death and dying affects everyone. At some point in your life, you’ll need palliative care. That’s why I think that it’s everybody’s business, but as a society we don’t want to talk about dying.”
Follow ‘ Two Tree Lodge Hospice’ on Facebook for updates on upcoming talks or forums on palliative care. For cancer patient palliative care services, Dr Ling advises family members to discuss the options with their oncologist.