Local groups band together for ARCH

NEWS RELEASE

ARCH

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Each and every one of you matter to us.

At ARCH Hospice, we believe person deserves compassionate care through end-of-life. Each and every person matters. Every moment matters. It’s why our expansion is going to include new specialty care programs. It’s also why two local organizations made a generous donation.

The two local chapters of the Order of the Sons of Italy, the G. Verdi Lodge and the Princess Marie Jose Lodge, banded together to donate $25,000 to the expansion project. Lois Turcotte, a Lodge Representative, was thrilled that the Lodges rallied to help out. “We thought to ourselves, this is something we can get behind - making quality end-of-life care available to everyone in Algoma - all 115,000 of us.”

Lois advocates for Hospice, explaining her feeling of ARCH: “It’s more than the sum of people, programs and services. It creates a space for living at the end-of-life. Moments for family, love, support, celebration, and even dancing.“

Tom O’Flanagan, an accomplished local artist and professor, feels the same and shared his recent hospice journey with us: “My wife Pat spent the last month of her life at ARCH Hospice after a three year engagement with renal cancer. Throughout that time, her spirit never faltered and she maintained a vivid sense of humour. At the start, we came to an understanding that we were not going to battle the illness but rather to treat it like a dance, one in which each new element of the saga would be considered a joyful improvisation rather than a needless expenditure of anxiety and negative emotion.

ARCH and its wonderful staff allowed us to continue dancing right to the very end of time. Their compassion, sensitivity and professionalism allowed us to take stock of Pat’s end of life with as much grace and dignity as possible. The homelike environment, the beautiful facility and the superlative meals gave us an opportunity to welcome beloved family and friends in a world of support and dignity and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Now, two months after her passing, I remain utterly grateful for the remarkable, poetic and sanctified way that Pat departed this beautiful world and I consider her passing as the greatest moment of my life. Her end which has no end was made possible by ARCH and I have come to regard our time there as the culmination of a long and enduring marriage. ARCH is a treasure to this community, deserving of our broadest and deepest support.”

In addition to new services such as paediatric palliative care, bariatric palliative care, and outreach programming, the expansion will allow for the growth of ARCH Hospice education and grief support services. The total projected cost of expansion is $3 million. For more information on “Why it Matters”, and ARCH Hospice expansion please visit www.whyitmatters.ca or donate online here.

“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.”

— Dame Cicely Saunders, nurse, physician, writer, and founder of hospice movement (1918 - 2005).

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