Remembering Elizabeth Taylor in Vancouver
May 1st to 7th is National Hospice Palliative Care Week (NHPCW), a one-week campaign that focuses on raising awareness about hospice palliative care. It is also a time to celebrate, recognize, and share the achievements of hospice palliative care throughout the nation.
To mark this occasion, St. James is releasing a photograph of Elizabeth Taylor presenting a cheque to St. James Community Service in Vancouver in 1999.
St. James Community Service Society celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011. There have been many extraordinary moments over the last half century. One that people still talk about is Elizabeth Taylor’s visit to May’s Place Hospice in 1999. During a visit to Vancouver she dropped in to speak to patients, many of whom at that time were in the terminal stages of AIDS-related illnesses. Through her Foundation, Liz also made generous donations to the Hospice program, especially the construction of Cottage Hospice. Like many, we will miss her energy and compassion enormously.
There are three hospices in Vancouver. Two are operated by St. James Community Service Society, a long time housing, health, and social care provider to the most vulnerable in the community. These facilities are a testament to broad community support and commitment. Last year both hospices served 152 patients and their families.
May's Place was the first free-standing hospice in British Columbia: it opened in 1990 with six beds and mostly serves a vulnerable population in the Downtown Eastside. Elizabeth Taylor and her foundation supported May's on more than one occasion. Located on Powell St. the community around May’s Place continues to change and with it so do the needs of people living in the DTES with terminal illness. Many face an array of barriers and health issues, including mental illness, addictions, social isolation, and poverty.
In 1999 Cottage Hospice was opened in East Vancouver in Burrard View Park, providing a further ten beds. A successful capital campaign to build Cottage engaged hundreds of individual contributors (including Elizabeth Taylor), businesses, corporations, churches and charitable institutions. Since then friends, families, local businesses, and neighbours continue to support the ongoing operations of the hospices. The neighbourhood Trinity Street Lights Festival has supported Cottage from time to time and volunteers come from the surrounding neighbourhood.
Hospice palliative care is an enormously important but under-valued part of our healthcare system. 90% of terminally ill Canadians could benefit from palliative care, yet only 30% are able to access it. $50,000 is the estimated per-person cost to the health care system of not providing hospice palliative care to the homeless who are terminally ill. Community supporters donate over $300,000 a year to support the operations of May’s Place and Cottage hospices.
St. James is able to arrange interviews with hospice staff, a family member of a past patient, and with someone who met with Elizabeth Taylor during her visit. Quotes and testimonies from past patients and family members are available on video at http://www.sjcss.com/people/videos.
A colour, high resolution jpg version of the Elizabeth Taylor photograph is available for publication.
For further information, please contact:
Lesley Anderson, Director of Development
T: 604-360-0172
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