This week, the ashes from about 350 messages were scattered around a rose tree at Bendigo Health’s Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at Mercy Street, Bendigo. 

About 16 people attended the ceremony, which coincided with National Palliative Care Week. 

Living well with chronic illness was the theme of the week, an effort by Palliative Care Victoria to raise awareness of the need for people with advanced chronic illness to be able to access palliative care. 

Bendigo Health manager of integrated palliative care services Alison Smith said palliative care was not just for people close to the end of their lives.

She said it was best accessed from diagnosis to help people live well with a chronic illness for as long as possible. 

Palliative care includes pain and symptom management, and support for carers, family and friends of a loved one with an illness.

“Palliative care has evolved a lot in the past 10 or 15 years,” Mrs Smith said. 

“Our role is to help you live, and obviously to support you through dying too.”

She encouraged people to talk to their loved ones about advanced care planning, regardless of their situation in life.

Donations by people leaving messages on the Tree of Remembrance funds training for Bendigo Health palliative care volunteers, who help bereaved people come to terms with their losses.

Bendigo Health palliative care volunteer coordinator Joan Loverso said people often told the people manning the trees they couldn’t have done without the support of the palliative care team.

Sometimes people needed the opportunity to share their experiences, even if their loved one had died many years ago. 

“Often we don’t want to talk about these things in the community, but I think we need to talk about it,” Mrs Loverso said.