“It does get better, the pain does get better. It takes time, but one day, you wake up and it is better”. So says CEO of Stepping Stone Hospice, Tersia Burger, who opened the official proceedings at the hospice’s Annual Memorial Day held on Sunday in their gardens in New Market Park.

Huge excitement prevails on the hospice grounds as teams are hard at work getting our very own Hospice Charity Shop ready for its official opening on Friday September 30, 2016.

Help us Build, Brick by Brick project is gaining momentum with several donations and commitments coming in. Recorded this far:

In 2014, Stepping Stone Hospice took the brave step of entering a cycling team in the 94.7 Momentum Cycle Challenge that took place on the 16th November 2014. A whopping R380 000 was raised for the hospice by our group of 44 cyclists “riding for a purpose” in this annual cycling event.

Die sowat 300 aanhangers van die gewilde Jonathan van Radio Raps wie verlede Woensdag, 10 Augustus die Alberton Rugbyklub se boma volgepak het, het beslis nie teleurgesteld huistoe gegaan nie.

With the onset of extreme cold weather this past week, Stepping Stone Hospice & Care Services heard of the plight of some orphaned and vulnerable children in our neighbouring communities. Hospice has been blessed with several donations of blankets over the past two months and a decision was made to reach out to some of these children.

It was a full house at Reading Country Club this past Wednesday evening, 27 July, as Stepping Stone Hospice hosted their 2nd annual ‘Come Whine With Me’ event. The sold-out function was a great success and the ladies who attended were treated to an evening of inspiration and insight, as guest speakers, Holistic Entrepreneur Marisa Wollheim and Prof. Carol-Ann Benn, considered to be one of the top breast-cancer experts in South Africa, shared their wisdom and knowledge.

Danksy Alberton Rugbyklub se vinnige ingryping, kan menige aanhanger van die gewilde Radio Raps se Jonathan, wie nie kaartjies vir sy vertoning op 10 Augustus kon kry nie, nou gehelp word.

In acknowledging Mandela Day, the Shoprite Furniture Group on Monday July 18, delivered 67 blessing blankets to Stepping Stone Hospice. Management and staff of the House & Home and OK Furniture Divisions took 67 days to make the 67 blankets.

Management and staff at René Turck & Associates combined effort and skill to enable them to donate over a hundred blankets to Stepping Stone Hospice. Marc Turck (on the left) and brother Sean Turck, here with CEO Tersia Burger.

We launched our “Help Us Build, Brick by Brick” project on Thursday July 7, a project to raise funds for our planned extension to the existing In-Patient Unit. The extension has been necessitated by the ever-increasing demand for hospice care, care that is also needed more and more amongst young people.

A huge big thank you to Steve Peterson from Steve's Auto Tech & Diagnostics in Alrode who took our bakkie under his wing and gave it some "tender loving and care."

Ruth Dale (76), a patient in our unit, and her husband Clive (78) celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday July 6, in our gardens.

Congratulations to Beverley van Zyl, one of our volunteers, on being selected as a finalist in the Staff Volunteerism Awards for 2016 in The Old Mutual Foundation Group.

Why do we need a hospice facility in our community? And why do we need to support this hospice, in whatever possible way we can?