Community pitches in to help Cancer Society Hawke's Bay move

Volunteers, Richard Mayhead (left), and Allan James, volunteers pitch in to help Hawke's Bay Cancer Society move out of its Nelson St premises. Photo/Warren Buckland.

For the first time in 20 years, Cancer Society New Zealand's Hawke's Bay branch has packed up and moved to a new premise, in what centre manager, Trudy Kirk believes is the next stage in the charity's life.

Yesterday, Conroy Removals and an army of volunteers turned what once was a busy building into a shell.

It has been a work in progress over the past few years as the society's executive Ccmmittee and Little Elms Charitable Trust formed an alliance to make the move happen, and sold their existing premise Nelson St, South.

"We have a memorandum of understanding so that we are all moving towards the same goals for the future and that is for the health of the community."

Their new premises, located at the Little Elms complex at 310 Orchard Rd, Hastings, is across the road from Hawke's Bay Hospital.

Kirk said this location was important, as too was the ability to expand on the land available.

"Things have changed in 20 years; the Cancer Society work with a lot more people than we did back then and we also offer different services," she said.

"The way of the future with Cancer is that the supportive care of psychosocial support is incredibly important and we have more people surviving cancer so it is really important that we are ready to meet those needs."

Being so close the hospital means they are able to be more visible and cater to more people.

"This move is the first stage of a bigger and exciting project that will put the Cancer Society in a better position to accommodate the needs of those in our Hawke's Bay communities who are living with and beyond cancer into the future."