Arohanui Hospice’s Farming for Hospice programme celebrates 30 years of fundraising in autumn 2024. And it started the way all good programmes do, with a really good idea.
Farmer Gerald Fell had just lost his sister Jennifer to breast cancer. She died aged 50 in the Hospice’s care, and the Hospice were so good to Jennifer and the family that Gerald wracked his brains to find some way he could give back.
“I came up with the idea of a cattle rearing programme,” he said. Some of region’s young farmers were putting calves out to rear — having them weaned then finished on other farms with good grazing — and Gerald reasoned that this could be turned into something to help the Hospice.
“The key thing was getting the right help, people with knowledge and time to make it work.”
Gerald contacted Derek Tuck, the recently retired manager of Wrightsons, living in Feilding. He couldn’t have picked a better person; Derek had expertise and time on his hands. Derek contacted Neil Finch, another retired stock agent, and they lined up Ron Eaton to take charge of the administration. That was a big job; cattle had to be tagged with big plastic ear tags to identify them, and the paperwork was paper, miles of it. Computerised tracking of digitised animal identification systems was still a long way off in the future.
Between them all, they knew a large number of farmers who would willingly take on finishing a cattle beast or two, providing grazing and care for a matter of months, and then the Hospice would get the proceeds from the sales.
The only catch was that money was needed to buy the young stock. Derek took the problem to Mervyn Monk. “He ran the Hospice, and he’d come from Trustbank, so he had to know about money.” Mervyn arranged finance, and the programme was off.
“It was an easy sell, really,” Gerald says. “Asking people to do something for the Hospice? Nearly everyone has been touched by cancer in some way, or will be, themselves, or a family member or close friend. No, it was an easy sell.”
What also worked in the programme’s favour was the fabulous fertility of the Hospice’s region; Manawatu, Rangitikei, Horowhenua and the Tararua. It was relatively easy for farmers to agree to graze a beast or two, because they had the right land for finishing stock.
Another brainwave that helped the programme was setting up area co-ordinators, farmers with boots on the ground throughout the Hospice’s region, who would encourage neighbours to help as well. They kept an eye on their local areas, and Derek and Neil chose stock and supplied keen enthusiasm. They organised free transport for the Hospice cattle, and more recently, free veterinary services through Totally Vets Group, which has branches throughout the region.
Derek and Neil set themselves a goal: To raise 10 percent of the Hospice’s funding shortfall each year. The Government only gives a percentage of what it takes to deliver Hospice services to the community; the community raises the rest. Ten percent sounds a lot, but Derek, Neil, the community co-ordinators, and the farmers suppling the grazing and care consistently over-performed with the help of 20 volunteer co-ordinators and more than 300 farmers.
These days, the database has 195 graziers, with about 30 active donors.
Last year, proceeds from the programme raised almost $150,000, with the programme having raised over $3 million for the Hospice in its 30 years.
Others have recognised the importance of the programme. In 2015, Derek was named runner-up for the Lifetime Achievement award at the Pride of New Zealand Awards, and at the end of that year, he was awarded a Local Hero medal as part of the Kiwibank Local Hero of the Year awards.
Gerald says he had no idea the programme would run as long as it has. He retired to Taupo when he left the farm — “I’m 83 and a half, and that half’s important at my age” — and others took over the work. Simon McKay and John McLean became convenors and stock buyers ensuring the programme would continue.
“My age group’s knocking on a bit now. We’ve had decades — decades! — of farmers helping the Hospice. There’s a third generation coming up now, and I hope they’ll step up to the challenge,” Gerald says.
There in lies the challenge. The faces aren’t the only things that have changed. Farming has altered with diversification; farmers moving into dairy farming, cropping and forestry. Fewer young people are going into farming, and farms are getting bigger as mergers gather together smaller parcels of land. The administration load on farmers is also increasing, with more Government requirements to track stock.
In response to these changes, the Farming for Hospice programme is also diversifying. Arohanui Hospice chief executive Clare Randall says the Hospice is encouraging dairy farmers to contribute the proceeds from cull cows to the programme, and there are moves to include crops, and sheep and other animals. The Hospice is also looking for a manager to explore other opportunities.
Clare says Farming for Hospice has been the longest-running fundraiser for Arohanui Hospice, and one of its most successful. And the rural base of the programme was especially fitting, given that so many Hospice services deliver care and help to people in rural areas.
“Take today, we’ve got 210 patients on the books, and of that, only three or four are actually in the inpatient unit. The vast majority of our work is out in the community, in people’s homes. That’s where they want to be, for as long as possible,” Clare says.
Clare herself is part of the programme. She hand rears a couple of calves each year, bringing them up to the weight they need to be, then passing them on to farmers for finishing grazing. This could be another possible future expansion for the programme, but she cautions that people have to understand the care that animals require, and be correctly setup.
“You’d have to know animals, and have yards and access for trucks to take the finished cattle away,” she says. “You might be able to bring calves onto a lifestyle block on a trailer, but you need more than that to take them away.”
She’s thankful that so many people are happy to support the programme, and hopes this will continue. Gerald has the final word.
“Long may it continue!” he says. “We’re always going to need the Hospice, so let’s support it.”
