The Last Breath — A Podcast About Death And Dying

Lauren Fenn is the Clinical Nurse Manager at Rainbow Place, Hospice Waikato’s specialised paediatric palliative care service. In this interview, she talks about caring for children with life-limiting conditions and supporting families through unimaginable circumstances.

Susan O’Regan — A Daughter’s Grief, a Public Life Remembered

Former Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan reflects on the death of her mother, Katherine O’Regan — a former Waipā MP, Cabinet Minister, and Associate Minister of Health. Katherine played a pivotal role in establishing New Zealand’s free national breast screening programme, the very illness that would later claim her life in 2018. This deeply personal conversation explores what it means to grieve a mother whose life was lived in public service, and how legacy is carried by those left behind.

Dr Kathryn Mannix is a British palliative care physician, cognitive behavioural therapist, and author who believes we’ve forgotten the ordinary human knowledge of dying—and that we can learn it again. In this wide-ranging, compassionate conversation, she describes what happens near the end of life, how grief revisits us in waves, and why honesty, kindness, and clear words can help us live — and die — with less fear.

Examining the experience of assisted dying. Karen Mansfield’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year and opted for an assisted death. Karen talks us through that experience. Palliative care nurse Archana Gaunder describes the lessons she learned from her first
experience caring for patient who’d decided on to go out on his own terms.

A statement from Hospice Waikato:

Fundamentally, Hospice Waikato exists to help patients live every moment, and treatment is focused on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure. If a patient decides to look into assisted dying, Hospice Waikato staff will provide them with a leaflet, outlining our involvement and giving them a website to visit to find out more information. The Patient will remain a hospice patient and our service delivery will not change. We will continue to provide the best possible care for our patients and their families and whānau, however, we will not be with the patient when they die and end of life interventions will not be carried out in our in-patient unit.

Kaiāwhina, Maori, Grief, Loss and the Love of a Good Dog.

In a wide ranging and deeply felt interview Hospice Waikato’s Kaiāwhina Honey Hireme-Smiler talks about her work supporting Maori patients and their whanau and her own experiences with grief and loss. There’s a perception among Maori that Hospice is a Pakeha thing, it’s not. Hospice is for everyone and accommodates all cultural needs. The next episode of the Last Breath Episode is about assisted dying and we start that discussion here with grief counsellor Maxine Exely who featured in episode 7. She talks about her experiences with assisted dying before turning to the subject of her own enduring grief.