Dr Merriman (seated, centre) together with Two Tree Lodge Hospice volunteers and audience members of her talk on Sunday.
KUCHING: Prof Dr Anne Merriman, Hospice Africa founder and current director of Policy and International Programmes, has been busy delivering talks since landing here.
On Sunday, Dr Merriman – a pioneer in palliative care in Uganda and Singapore – spoke to some 40 people at Two Tree Lodge Hospice Kuching about having ‘fire in the belly’, or having a powerful sense of ambition or determination.
Two Tree Lodge Hospice was founded to support patients with advanced cancer and their families in their end-of-life journey by providing hospice home care support.
Dr Merriman came here upon the invitation of Lily Ling, a counselor and co-founder of Two Tree Lodge Hospice, where she delivered lectures and talks, and made visits to places the Palliative Care Ward (PCW) at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
Nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in palliative care, she was in Kuching for the first time.
Her talk at the hospice office was to encourage participants to look within themselves and find the spark that drives them to help those who are suffering.
“Fire in the belly in palliative care is seeing the suffering and resolving to do something about it,” she said.
Dr Merriman later told The Borneo Post that Kuching has a great prospect for being a model in palliative care for all of Malaysia.
“I think you’re getting there because you got all these people who really are inspired. As long as they get the government and senior doctors onboard, I think it’s going to move very fast,” she said.
Under her leadership in the past 25 years, Uganda’s palliative care services have emerged as the gold-star standard in all of Africa.
In the Lien Foundation 2015 Quality of Death Index, Uganda ranked at 35th in the world for palliative care, while Malaysia ranked at 38th.
Dr Merriman pointed out that Malaysia does not suffer from the economic difficulties that Uganda has.
“The money is there, and people are generous and caring. I think you have a great prospect of being a model for all of Malaysia.”
Ling, meanwhile spoke on educating everyone about palliative care.