Receiving the Illawarra Volunteer Team of the Year award from Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown. Photo: Supplied.
In a touching initiative, Illawarra Palliative Care volunteers are preserving precious memories through a new biography writing program that gives patients a chance to share their life stories.
Illawarra Palliative Care volunteer coordinator Cynzia Dei-Cont said the program involved volunteers visiting patients for up to six weeks, recording their personal histories to turn into a bound book.
It’s an initiative that helped the team take out Illawarra Volunteer Team of the Year in September, resulting in them now being in the NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards in December, hosted by The Centre for Volunteering.
Cynzia said in addition to the biography work, they received the accolade for offering comfort to people in palliative care and their loved ones in hospitals and at home, and supporting the bereaved as “grief companions”.
She said as part of the biography program, each week stories were recorded, transcribed and then reviewed with the patient, resulting in a professionally bound biography, complete with photographs from their personal collection.
“More important than the bound book at the end, is the process,” she said.
“It’s the process of being heard, being seen, validation and realising that good things happened and life has been worth living.
“It’s the healing that comes from reflection.”
Cynzia said if a patient passed away during the process, the biography was given to a pre-agreed recipient.
Volunteers completed biography-specific training earlier this year to ensure they could sensitively capture each unique life story and already had two biographies in progress – one in the Shoalhaven and one in the Illawarra.
She said the Illawarra team was given a boost this month when volunteer, Bulli woman Anne Adamson, won the Westfield Miranda 2025 Local Hero award, receiving a $20,000 grant for training and patient resources.
“The cost of binding for the biographies will also be supported by the grant,” she said.
Cynzia said the biography program was just one part of a broader volunteer service that included ward support at Bulli Hospital, community visits, and grief companionship.
2025 Westfield Miranda Local Hero Anne Adamson. Photo: Supplied.
She said ward volunteers helped with serving meals and providing hand and foot massages – not just for patients but also for carers.
“They also take time to sit and chat, if not with the patient – because sometimes the patient is asleep for many hours – then with the carers who are there doing the vigil, really,” she said.
“Caring for the family and the carers is part of caring for the patient.”
She said community visits provided respite for the carer looking after a loved one in their own home, allowing them a chance to take care of their own health and neglected day-to-day tasks.
“Often, we find the carer appreciates someone coming and just sitting and having a cuppa and not talking about medical stuff – just a normal, everyday conversation,” she said.
“Increasingly, we’re also seeing people palliating at home alone.”
She said volunteers could also be grief companions, offering the chance to grieve with someone other than a family member.
“It’s someone new that hasn’t heard the stories, or who if they cry they’re not going to try and cheer them up or say “get over it’,” she said.
“They hold the space for the person’s grief.”
Regardless of what area they chose to work in, she said volunteers felt privileged to be able to provide emotional support during life’s most challenging moments.
“End of life is challenging and there are all sorts of emotions involved when someone you love is dying, the person themselves are facing death or someone has experienced the death of someone close to them recently,” she said.
Today, they have 32 volunteers, with another 12 undertaking training – but more were always needed.
She said a carer needed to be empathetic, caring, compassionate and able to maintain boundaries, along with upholding health policies regarding confidentiality.
“The recurring things I hear from volunteers is it’s a privilege to be included in people’s life at this time, and the other thing they say is they get a lot more out of it than they give,” she said.
“It’s emotional, social support that enhances the clinical care.”
If you’re interested in being a palliative care volunteer, visit the Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District volunteer page.
