ManitobaA local group is working to raise $8 million to build Brandon’s first standalone hospice, giving families in southwestern Manitoba access to end-of-life care closer to home.Westman Hospice Association needs to raise about $8M to bring standalone hospice to cityChelsea Kemp · CBC News · Posted: Oct 25, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe Westman Hospice Association launched an advertising campaign last year as part of its efforts to get a hospice residence built in Brandon. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)A year after an awareness campaign highlighting the need for a standalone hospice in Western Manitoba, a group of Brandonites working to bring compassionate end-of-life care has commitments for half the money it needs — when the project moves forward.Pam Heath began volunteering with the Westman Hospice Association after her mother, Doris, died in 2024. The group supported her and her brother while they cared for their mom at home though a palliative care program. The Westman Hospice Association helped with respite.”We desperately wanted to keep mom in her own home as long as we could, and we did right up to the end,” Heath said. “It worked for us, but it can’t work for everybody.”But she learned from the association that hospice care in Brandon wasn’t an option. The province’s only hospice sites are in Winnipeg.”We so desperately need it,” Heath said.Pam Heath wants families in Brandon to have options of hospice care when facing the death of a loved one. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)While there are palliative care units in many hospitals, standalone hospice facilities typically offer a home-like setting for people with life-limiting illnesses and are staffed 24/7, providing an option for people who can’t stay in their own homes but don’t want to spend their last days in a hospital.The Westman Hospice Association has been working for years to raise about $8 million to bring a standalone space for end-of-life care to Brandon, including an ad campaign launched last year.”We don’t have hospices close enough to us here,” said Terri Miller, the association’s president. “We would really love to offer all of our community … opportunities to have community care at home, palliative care in the hospital or hospice care.”But right now, “if you don’t live in Winnipeg, it means we don’t have choice yet.”Community support is strong, but progress has been slow, said Miller.Westman Hospice currently has about $500,000 raised and roughly $4 million more in pledges for when the project moves forward, she said. What’s needed now is co-operation from the Prairie Mountain regional health authority and the province, so major sponsors can commit.The association has a proposal and design concept for an eight-room facility that could expand to 16 rooms. Eight would be a start for the region, Miller said, and the association is working with Prairie Mountain Health and the Manitoba government to get the project approved.Westman Hospice president Terri Miller says her association is pushing for more end-of-life options in Brandon. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)When built, Westman Hospice wants to see the facility operated by Prairie Mountain Health, Miller said. But that’s in the distant future.”All of the planning is certainly in negotiation at this point,” said Miller.In an email to CBC, Prairie Mountain Health said it’s working with the group to enhance palliative and hospice care in Westman.Choice neededMiller said hospices offer dignity and quality of care at the end of life.”People deserve a very peaceful and very dignified place to live and to die,” she said.Because awareness in the community varies, the group continues to explain the difference between palliative and hospice care, said Miller, who said while palliative care focuses on treatment, hospice care is about comfort and dignity in a person’s final stage of life.The Westman Hospice Association began in the late 1980s and has fluctuated over the years, but Miller said there’s never been a stronger push to build a permanent facility.”Our aging population is changing the conversation. We have to talk about it more,” she said.Westman Hospice Association Linda Noto says the hospice project is helping raise awareness that people deserve options around end-of-life care. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)Treasurer Linda Noto said more people need to think about their end-of-life plans.”There’s only two things in life we’re sure of, and that’s birth and death,” Noto said. “For some reason, people are uncomfortable with talking about death.”Building a hospice could help people start those difficult conversations before they face a crisis, Noto said, and help them realize they deserve to have access to options for end-of-life care.That’s something she wants to get people talking about, she said. And since right, too few people know about the project, Westman Hospice is also working to educate the community about its plans.Heath said her mother’s experience showed how vital local hospice care is. WATCH | Association working to bring hospice facility to Brandon:Push continues to bring standalone hospice to BrandonBrandon, Man., still has no hospice, but a local group hopes to change that with an $8-million fundraising push. Westman Hospice says it’s raising money to build an eight-bed hospice in the city.Her family was lucky because of the amazing palliative care they received, she said, and the experience gave her mother joy and dignity in her last days.Now, she wants other families to have options to give their loved ones choice in their end-of-life care, whether that’s at-home care, hospice care or palliative care.”It’s a lifeline, and it’s priceless.”ABOUT THE AUTHORChelsea Kemp is a multimedia journalist with CBC Manitoba. She is based in CBC’s bureau in Brandon, covering stories focused on rural Manitoba. Share your story ideas, tips and feedback with chelsea.kemp@cbc.ca.
Group continues push to build hospice ‘we so desperately need’ in Brandon
