If you’ve been diagnosed with a serious, long-lasting disease or with a life-threatening illness, you qualify.  Palliative care focuses on relieving pain and other troubling symptoms and meeting your emotional, spiritual, and practical needs. In short, this medical specialty aims to improve your quality of life while you remain in control.

Palliative care is performed along with the care you receive from your primary doctors.

Patients with life-limiting and life- threatening illnesses and the elderly in advance stages of geriatric conditions benefit from Palliative Care, including:

• Cancer
• Congestive heart failure
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Chronic respiratory diseases (COPD)
• Dementia (advanced stage)
• Drug-resistant TB
• HIV/AIDS
• Huntington’s disease
• Motor neuron diseases
• Multiple sclerosis
• Organ failure (kidney and liver failure)
• Parkinson’s disease (advance stage)

• Post COVID-19 related illness

• When you are starting to receive treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy
• When you have been told that your life expectancy is months rather than years’

• The patient may be referred to the hospice by their private doctor, hospital medical team, or by the family or patient themselves.

• Most of our patients are supported at home, and do not require admission to Hospice.
• Being “referred” to hospice does not imply “admission” to the IPU
• Admission to the Hospice In Patient Unit (IPU) is offered for specific reasons (see question below)

• for better management of pain and other distressing symptoms
 
• for family respite
 
• for terminal care

• Part 1: Patient completes and signs the registration form (form obtainable online or at our Hospice reception desk)
• Part 2: Doctor completes this Medical Referral form with as much information as possible
• A Centurion Hospice Patient Registration officer will confirm receipt of the above forms
• One of our professional nurses will make telephonic contact with you, or the primary caregiver in the family, to arrange a convenient time to visit you.
• The first visit by the professional nurse includes:
  • Detailed history of diagnosis/disease progression
  • Full physical assessment
  • Making up of a care plan according to pain and symptoms
  • Arranging for follow up visits
  • Describing the “Team Approach” and possibility of referral to other team members

• Hospice and palliative care provide specialized care and support to improve the quality of life of people with progressive, incurable illness. . Hospice does nothing to either speed up or postpone dying.
 
• Hospice/palliative care affirms life, and assists the patient with finding a will to meaning.
 
• At hospice, we do not practice Euthanasia, or Physician Assisted Suicide. By receiving best quality Palliative Care, people in severe distress find the much needed support and answers to questions that relieves the anxiety experienced in facing the unknown.

Let Your Legacy Work for Others

A bequest to Centurion Hospice Association is a powerful gift, which can bring quality Palliative Care to the greater community.

This gift is a living memory of you!

Your legacy can provide physical and emotional relief to someone faced with a life-limiting illness that otherwise may spend their last few days in anguish.

Leaving a charitable bequest (which is exempt from Estate Duty) means that the value of this bequest is deducted from your estate before the duty is calculated. As nouns the difference between bequest and legacy is that bequest is the act of bequeathing or leaving by will while legacy is (legal) money or property bequeathed to someone in a will.

In the words of Susan V. Bosak
“Legacy is about life and living. It’s about learning from the past, living in the present, and building for the future.

Where do you think it’s best to plant a young tree: a clearing in an old-growth forest or an open field? Ecologists tell us that a young tree grows better when it’s planted in an area with older trees. The reason, it seems, is that the roots of the young tree are able to follow the pathways created by former trees and implant themselves more deeply. Over time, the roots of many trees may actually graft themselves to one another, creating an intricate, interdependent foundation hidden under the ground. In this way, stronger trees share resources with weaker ones so that the whole forest becomes healthier. That’s legacy: an interconnection across time, with a need for those who have come before us and a responsibility to those who come after us.”

Please consider including in your will a bequest to Centurion Hospice Association to enable us to care for others with life-limiting illnesses.

Our personnel are discouraged from accepting any gifts, services and hospitality. Giving or accepting cash gifts are inappropriate and will be viewed as being used for undue influence, or worst case scenario bribery.

We can only succeed in ethical business practices with you – the patron of Centurion Hospice Association – being our active partner in combatting unethical behaviour. The flip side, we will take appropriate action against anyone inducing improper conduct.

The donation of a service such as time, skill or effort will not qualify for a section 18A receipt, similarly:

• An amount paid to attend a fundraising event
 
• Memorabilia and other assets donated to be auctioned to raise funds
 
• The amount paid for the successful bid of goods auctioned to raise funds
 
• Amounts paid for raffle or lottery tickets
 
• Payments of debt owned by the organisation
 
• Prizes and sponsorships donated for a fundraising event
 
• Membership fees
 
• Sponsorships, a commercial transaction with an expected return on investment by means of marketing opportunities, i.e. logo on items or banners at an events venue

Do not qualify for a section 18A receipt.

Our Charity Shop is a secondary market retail establishment operating as a fund-raising venue which supports our Palliative Care activities.

The Charity Shops sell a mix of clothing, books, toys, videos, DVDs, music (like CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl), furniture, and bric-a-brac (like cutlery and ornaments). From time to time you may find vintage clothing, furniture, electrical items, or records.

Our trading Hours

Mon-Fri : 08h00 – 16h00
Sat: 08h30 – 13h00
Sun: Closed
Public Holidays: See our website for details pertaining to fund-raising events

Textile goods that remain unsold after 3-months are re-gifted to other charities for distribution to impoverished communities where jobs are created by keeping unemployed persons busy with repairs and alterations to donated second-hand clothing. Not only does this provide self-employment, but it also increases household income and enhances the local economy.

Price bargaining places unnecessary strain on our shop assistants as they are not equipped to price goods which are done by the Volunteering Cadre. If the reduction in price more than compensates for the possibly shorter remaining lifetime, lack of warranty, and so on, there is a net benefit. Should you believe an item is over-priced, bring your concern to the attention of the shop supervisor who will refer the item for re-pricing.

Second-hand goods may have faults which are not apparent even if examined. We do not have a return policy, but each complaint will be dealt with on merit. As a rule we do not offer lay-buy nor credit, and goods purchased must be collected within 48-hours due to storage and security constraints.

You can arrange for larger items purchased to be delivered to you, against payment of the applicable delivery fee.

Although we encourage donations to be delivered during trading hours to prevent theft or damage by passers-by or inclement weather, our Donation Receiving Area is accessible to the public 24/7. Be so kind and record your donation with security outside trading hours.

By arrangement, and subject to route and load optimisation, we will collect donated goods. Please contact our office in this regard.

Subject to the provisions of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, section 18A receipts may be issued in certain instances. However, no section 18A receipt can be issued for 2nd hand used goods.

The second-hand market both reduces use of resources in manufacturing new goods, and diminishes waste which must be disposed of, both significant environmental benefits in conserving natural resources and protecting the environment. And second-hand goods benefit our customers as the price paid is lower than the same items bought new.

We love receiving your reusable unwanted goods; be thoughtful though, we are not a waste disposal organisation. Currently about 60% of all donated goods are discarded because it is unusable for reuse, straining our resources with increased waste disposal expenditure. With the support of the community we aim at reducing the waste percentage to 30%.

On request by the donor, all cash (money) donations actually paid to the association will qualify for a section 18A receipt.

We encourage EFT transactions, our banking details are on the website. Alternatively, cash donations can be made at Centurion Hospice Reception.

In achieving our goal, we face numerous challenges and trade-offs; the greatest being able to fund core mission related activities. Very important supplementary funding is derived from donations, whether cash or in-kind.

We have been approved to issue section 18A receipts for donations received. A taxpayer making a bona fide donation is entitled to a limited deduction from taxable income

Please follow us on social media to keep abreast fund-raising events held from time to time. Our quarterly ‘Boot Sale’ and annual ‘Hospice Tea’ events are particularly popular.

Because of our volunteers, we contribute to the local economy by retailing donated 2nd hand goods that can be re-purposed, recycled and reused.

Suitably qualified volunteers make a difference in the lives of our Palliative Care patients.

We are committed to using the full potential of your volunteers, allowing them to make a difference in another person’s life, with worthwhile and visible results; of their efforts.

We are a voluntary association, not for gain.  Subject to the provisions of our constitution, anyone interested in serving the community and supporting the Palliative Care cause can become a Friend of Hospice.

Currently an annual membership fee of R115 is payable for membership June to May the following year.  The membership fee is revised by the Board of Governors annually.

Being a Friend of Hospice you become an active member of the association, participating in general meetings of the association and thereby direct the future course of the association as society increasingly rely on the non-profit sector to solve important social-economic problems.

Should the formalities of membership not appeal to you, your volunteering services are highly cherished.  Otherwise, be a supporter of our fund-raising events!