Peter’s Project was a resounding success and it will not be long before cancer patients from the region are being treated in a brand-new cancer care centre in Warrnambool.

The next challenge is also in the health sector, this time it is the launch of the Warrnambool and District Community Hospice, which is aiming to raise $500,000 to support a team of 40 volunteers to help terminally-ill people die at home.

Why is this important? Because, putting it simply, home is the best place for a person to die.

At the moment when a person dies in Warrnambool, the chances are that it will be in a hospital bed and hospitals are not the best places to leave this world.

They are busy, noisy and wholly unsuited to people seeking specialised care and a peaceful end.

People end up in hospital for numerous reasons — the family might not be equipped to look after a dying relative or the patient might not want to be a burden. Whatever the reason, hospitals should not be the default position for palliative care.

The hospice would give patients the same expert care and support, but in the far more preferable surroundings of their own home.

More than 70 per cent of palliative care patients said they would prefer to die at home in a recent survey, proving that the demand for hospice services is definitely there.

The fact is Australia has some way to go when it comes to planning properly for the inevitable with a paltry 14 per cent having an advanced care plan.

That has to change.

The hospice campaign is a great start and with support from the community will give terminally-ill people more options, dignity and first-class care in a familiar rather than a strange environment.

There is no reason why people can’t live reasonably well until their deaths and that’s what the hospice philosophy is essentially all about.

So please get behind it, Warrnambool.