AMHERST – A community effort to build a hospice facility in Amherst is getting stronger.
Amherst’s town council is throwing its support behind the community group by sending a letter, signed by Mayor David Kogon, to Health and Wellness Minister Randy Delorey to support efforts by the Cumberland County Hospice-Palliative Care Society to build the hospice facility on a patch of land on West Victoria Street that was donated to the society by Harold Lusby and his family.
The mayor said there is a dire need for hospice services in the area and pointed out there are no dedicated palliative care beds at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre.
The society announced in September 2015 that it wants to build a hospice society on a 12-acre piece of land that had been proposed as a site for the West Highlands Elementary School before it was build in its present location on Hickman Street.
There is no timeline for the project, but the hospice, once built, will include a memorial garden in honour of Harold Lusby’s late wife, Eileen.