Patient gets second chance to leave a legacy
She can now complete the one thing she regrets never finishing – a scrapbook for her granddaughter.
NOTHING could possibly explain hospice care better than the testimony of one of Stepping Stone Hospice’s patients, Mrs Margaret Smith (62).
After a few weeks’ stay in the in-patient unit, Margaret was recently discharged and sent home to spend some quality time with her family and her beloved chihuahua, Pippa.
Margaret, diagnosed with spinal cancer and lung cancer in September last year, was admitted to Stepping Stone Hospice in New Market Park in November 2018 after a stay at the Donald Gordon Oncology Unit in Parktown, Johannesburg.
“I just reached a point where I no longer wanted treatment in the form of radiations and chemo and tests upon tests,” said Margaret. She’s been battling cancer since 2017 when she was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
Originally from Richards Bay, she and her husband of 43 years, Basil, moved to her daughter in Mondeor in the south of Johannesburg when she was diagnosed with spinal cancer in September.
“I know hospice will not cure me, but they have given me back some quality of the life I have left and helped me regain my dignity,” she said.
When Margaret arrived at Stepping Stone Hospice she could not sit or walk and was riddled with pain.
“We were worried I had suffered a stroke, I was that weak,” Margaret said.
Within days the special care she received from the hospice medical staff enabled her to walk on her own, sit up and talk to her friends and family. The symptoms, such as pain and nausea, are now under control.
Explaining the most important aspect of hospice’s service, Margaret said: “They have helped me to come to grips with the fact that I am dying. The psycho-social support myself and my family received helped us to a calmer and more peaceful place. We’ve accepted that I cannot be cured and that I will now make the most of the days I have left.”
Margaret, who has two daughters, four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, said she may now complete the one thing she regrets never finishing – a scrapbook for her granddaughter.
“I loved doing scrapbooking, but the cancer robbed me of the energy to do that. But who knows, I may just pick up on this hobby of mine.
“I know I will come back to hospice. I made it very clear to my family that when the time comes, I should not be taken to a hospital, but straight back to Stepping Stone Hospice. I found my peace here and I’ll spend my last days here,” she said. “I know that I, and my family, will be in good hands.”
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