Totara Hospice provides specialist palliative care services to eligible people living with a life-limiting illness in South and South East Auckland. Death doesn’t discriminate against the young, old, male, female or any culture - it affects everyone. The average age of who we are engaging with is 45-64 years of age. As a hospice we offer dignity, calm, affirmation and holistic care and support for persons who access our services and for their family/whanau; understanding that while death is inevitable, dying unsupported is unacceptable. Whilst we provide our specialist palliative care services free of charge, Totara Hospice receives only approximately 61% of operational funding from the government. Each financial year this means a shortfall of over $4 million that still needs to be raised to cover our operational costs. This shortfall is raised through the generosity of the community through events, our retail shops, fundraisers, donations, bequests and grants from organisations.