By Bev Sebastian | Director
Island Hospice Service (now Island Hospice & Healthcare) was founded by Maureen Butterfield. Maureen's teenage daughter Frances, battled with cervical cancer and died in 1977, a few days short of her twentieth birthday. As part of documenting our history Harare International School students are developing an archive of our work of the almost 4 decades since the organization was founded by Maureen. This is in addition to the fundraising that is on-going to support a documentary of our history and the reason that this page exists.
On 7 February 2018 three Harare International students met with two very important women connected with our history to document their journeys. They are Rona Martin, an experienced clinical social worker who worked with Maureen and Island Hospice & Healthcare (Island) for 24 years and Zareena Ahmid who was Francis Butterfield’s school friend. Below we provide you with a snippet of that interview:
‘Palliative care or hospice is an approach it’s not a place, and this is why Maureen Butterfield started Island. After her precious daughter died she attended a talk by (the founder of the modern-day hospice movement) Dame Cicely Saunders when Cicely visited South Africa (in the late 70’s). Losing her daughter was devastating for Maureen and she learnt how she could have done it better (by attending the talk by Dame Cecily Saunders)’ – Rona
‘Those last few months must have been hard for Francis to not have her friends around. When she (Maureen) saw us all grieving at the funeral she realized that she should have let her daughter see us. I remember there was a young nurse who nursed her and she was as young as her (Francis). She (Francis) was probably so scared. She would not have known…..’ – Zareena
Rona reflects that before Island was established palliative care was not provided to anyone living with life threatening illnesses in Zimbabwe. ‘They didn’t do it well enough. They did not deal with the pain and symptoms’
‘Francis was a lovely bubbly girl. She was always in the plays. She sang and was autistic. The art teacher loved her. She would spend hours at the pool painting the ripples of the water. Her results were amazing. She went to Rhodes. She was exceptional’ - Zareena
‘She was polite, softly spoken and determined. when your child dies you have the courage to do everything because nothing else matters’. She did all the writing for the pamphlets. She didn’t see herself as the founder. It grew out of her and her family’s pain. She didn’t want glory’ - Rona
Maureen Butterfield founded an organization which today continues to provide quality palliative and bereavement care services. What this means is that if diagnosed with a life-threatening illness a proper assessment will be provided by a trained palliative care nurse who will find out what the physical pain and other symptoms are that need to be addressed. If there are family difficulties, or perhaps some breakdown or rejection by family or if the patient is showing a great deal of distress the nurse will call in a clinical social worker. Volunteer caregivers visit and give support at home and in community. A comprehensive bereavement services is provided to individuals and families when needed.
Please consider donating here to help us fund a visual documentary of our history.
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