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The Illawarra Palliative Care and Bereavement Volunteers have been named the 2025 Illawarra Volunteer Team of the Year by the NSW Centre for Volunteering. This remarkable group now advances to the state awards in December.

On the palliative care ward, volunteers provide a compassionate ear, sometimes with gentle hand or foot massages. They offer friendly chats, providing much-needed distraction and a sense of normalcy. Ward Volunteers also serve morning or afternoon tea, including “old fashioned” milkshakes that evoke fond childhood memories. One patient, after a milkshake, shared with a beaming smile, “This is the first thing I have been able to taste or swallow without pain for 8 months.” He gave a big thumbs up, declaring, “You have made my day,” to his wife’s immense gratitude.

Community Volunteers extend their support to those palliating at home, offering social and emotional assistance to clients and their carers. These weekly visits provide crucial carer respite, allowing them to attend to their own often-neglected health needs, run errands, or simply find peace and rest. One elderly woman, the sole carer for her dying husband, shared, “Oh, now that the volunteer is coming, I can go and buy new undies, the elastic in mine went months ago.” These visits also offer clients “normal” conversation, a welcome break from discussing their illness. One client noted, “I love it when the volunteer comes to visit because I don’t have to talk about my cancer.”

Their Grief Companions offer profound kindness, holding space for people’s sorrow and heartache. They create a safe atmosphere where bereaved individuals can share their experience of loss without judgment or pressure to “move on.” Grief Companions allow clients to reminisce, talk about their sense of loss, or cry without someone trying to cheer them up. They’ve also helped clients re-integrate into their communities after the death of a spouse, from meeting at local cafes and going for walks to accompanying them to art classes or library groups.

This year, some volunteers have undertaken Biography training, a new service for community clients. They will meet with clients for up to six weeks, recording their life stories, transcribing them, and creating a bound book with photos for patients and their loved ones. This “reminiscing” helps individuals facing death find peace in reviewing and celebrating their life’s achievements, often leading to the powerful realisation that their life was valuable and worth living.

The impact of the Illawarra Palliative Care and Bereavement Volunteers’ work is tangible. We congratulate them on their award and wish them the best at the state awards later this year.

Photo: (L to R) Representing Illawarra Palliative Care and Bereavement Volunteers, Anne Adamson and Anne McKenzie, with Wollongong City Mayor, Councillor Tania Brown.