Montana working for quality palliative care in Maitland

The now president of Friends of Palliative Care lost her dad to bowel cancer in 2011, and experienced first hand the powerful work the Maitland Palliative Care team do, which inspired her to do the same for other families with loved ones reaching the end of their life.

"Palliative care is a stage of life everyone will encounter, I believe it is vital to make this stage of life not only a talked about topic, but also ensure it is a memorable and loving experience for the family," Ms Duggan said.

At 25-years-old, Ms Duggan has accomplished so much in her life already.

In other news:

She works as a registered nurse/cardiac sonographer in East Maitland, climbed the ranks at Friends of Palliative Care to be elected president, and of course was announced as Maitland's Young Citizen of the Year on January 26.

Ms Duggan said she believes a fellow committee member nominated her for the young citizen title, and she felt absolutely honoured.

"I do not do what I do for any recognition, so I was honestly shocked to firstly be nominated and secondly win," she said.

"The messages of support we have received since I was awarded Young Citizen of the Year has been heart warming,

"In two short weeks, we have had three local community members reach out to become committee members."

Ms Duggan said it's simply amazing to see members of the community wanting to join their charity, especially as they are solely run on volunteers.

"Palliative care is not only important in Maitland, but it's important in every area," she said.

"Maitland is extremely lucky to have an excellent palliative care service ranging from the wonderful doctors and nurses to the generous volunteers who all strive to continually improve the patients' end of life experience."

At Friends of Palliative Care, Ms Duggan, alongside 18 other people volunteering their spare time, work by speaking with health professionals about pharmacy referrals to their service, organising hospital beds and care packages to be taken to homes of patients, and organising fundraising events.

"It's my way of giving back to an amazing service that helped my family in our time of need," she said.

Ms Duggan said her family are extremely supportive of her volunteer work, with her sister Rhiannon joining the organisation alongside her in 2017, and her husband Alex joining a few years ago.

"My entire family, from my mum to my Nans and Pops are always asking what they can do to help Friends of Palliative Care, and no job is ever too big or small for them," she said.

"I am so lucky to have an extremely loving and supportive family."

Ms Duggan said a great strength of their committee is that members are always willing to get in and help.

"Everyone always comes to meetings with smiles on their faces, eager to discuss ways we can improve or ways we can raise more funds," she said.

Ms Duggan said that anyone interested in joining their committee can reach out via Facebook or email friendsofpalliativecare@gmail.com.

"We absolutely love having new people join and bring their knowledge, love and support to our committee."

Friends of Palliative Care's major fundraiser, the annual walkathon and fun run at Walka Water Works will go ahead on Sunday, March 13.

Tickets can be purchased from Sticky Tickets.

The group also have an online raffle going which will be drawn at the walkathon, with prizes donated from local businesses.

Raffle tickets can be purchased at- Friends Of Palliative Care Incorporated Fundraising Raffle | RaffleLink.

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