The group of 20 volunteers followed their December meeting with a Christmas party at Wauchope RSL Club, where President Win Secombe thanked them for their hard work.

“We are just so lucky to have this group of people who are always willing to do whatever is asked of them in support of Wauchope District Memorial Hospital,” Mrs Secombe said.

“And supporting the volunteers is a marvellous community, be it Byabarra’s Stitch Up group, which makes gowns for palliative care patients, or the Wauchope Country Music group, which helps us with the proceeds from its country music festival,” Mrs Secombe said.

“We also have a fantastic working relationship with the Port Macquarie Pink Ladies, Hastings Co-op and, of course, local residents who come out in support of our monthly stalls at Hastings Co-op’s IGA store and our quarterly stalls at Lake Innes shopping centre.

“We receive in-kind donations from anonymous people, from people throughout NSW and from regular contributors.

“That support means we can donate vital medical equipment to Wauchope Hospital, which is the reason we do all this work in the first place.”

That hard work resulted in $26,730 worth of medical equipment being donated to Wauchope Hospital in the past year, which included a bladder scanner, an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine and three recliners for palliative care.

Mrs Secombe said the volunteers would take a short break, after their December stall at the Hastings Co-op IGA store in Wauchope on Friday 7 December before launching into the new year with a new project.

The Wauchope Hospital Volunteers will receive a $7725 grant from Port Macquarie-Hastings Council to build a garden pergola in the hospital grounds early next year.

Mrs Secombe said the new addition would be a place of reflection – a quiet retreat for palliative care patients and their families as well as other hospital patients.