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Channel Nine’s A Current Affair recently aired a moving episode focussing on the amazing care available at the Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice.

Navigating end-of-life care is one of the most challenging times any family can go through. For those with terminally ill children, that experience is all the more painful. But parents like Richard and Heike said having access to specially designed youth hospice care makes all the difference. 

Tragically, two of the couple’s three children were born with a rare terminal condition that meant they died aged 17 and 18. Brothers Bodhi and Kai’s experiences in their final days were like “chalk and cheese”.

Bodhi received care at Manly’s Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice (AYAH), which opened early last year. The only facility of its kind in Australia, AYAH provides free specialist care for 16- to 30-year-olds with life-limiting illnesses.

Thanks in part to AYAH, Bodhi was able to tick off several bucket list items before his death, including visiting Uluru and enjoying a beer after celebrating his 18th birthday.

Richard and Heike say they wish the same services were available when their eldest Kai passed away.

“Had we been able to come across the road and just come to AYAH with Kai, we [could’ve] had an entirely different process of dying with him.”

AYAH services manager Tayah Yeates says the facility is more essential than ever.

“With the advances in medicine, they’re finding that a lot of the kids that they didn’t expect to live beyond 18 are surviving a lot longer, and that’s one of the reasons for this facility,” Yeates said.

Click here to watch the full video by A Current Affair (8min, 28sec).