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| News & Events |
| August 19, 2005
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| NIAGARA HOSPICE HOSTS WOMAN BIKING ACROSS AMERICA |
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 Dianne Harrington (right), psychosocial services coordinator for Ministry Home Care Hospice Services in Marshfield, Wisconsin, talks with Niagara Hospice counselors Jane Killewald (left) and Nancy Munro (center) about her experience riding across America by bicycle this summer.
On June 19, 2005, 55-year old Dianne Harrington mounted her bike in Astoria, Oregon. This was the first of 50 days and 3,622 miles she would travel by bicycle this summer. Harrington, the psychosocial services coordinator at Ministry Home Care Hospice Services in Marshfield, Wisconsin, is riding for hospice awareness.
Harrington has traveled across the United States and Southern Canada this summer, from Oregon to Ontario. On Monday, August 1, she joined staff at Niagara Hospice in Lockport for a special breakfast. Even though from separate sides of the country, Harrington shares the mission of Niagara Hospice, which is educating people about hospice services, so that more people call hospice sooner.
“This trip has been beautiful and more work and more fun than I ever thought it would be,” Harrington said. “When I spoke to my supervisors about taking a leave from work to do this (ride across America) I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to raise hospice awareness and meet with hospices along the way.”
In 1979, Harrington lost her younger sister to cancer, before hospice care was prevalent in our society. Today, approximately 3,300 hospice programs exist in the United States, including Niagara Hospice, which serves the 218,000 residents of Niagara County.
While Harrington’s journey is nearly complete, the next chapter of Niagara Hospice is just beginning. On Monday, staff members shared their plans for Niagara Hospice House with Harrington. When completed in 2006, this 18-suite residence and in-patient facility will house Niagara County’s first residential hospice.
For more information on Dianne’s journey, including her online journal, please visit the Ministry Health Care website at www.ministryhomecare.org.
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