‘It made all the difference’

A fund for Gifford patients facing terminal diagnoses provides support during life’s hardest moments

When Tessa Cone parked her car at the airport in Colorado in September, she thought she would be flying to Vermont for a week or so. Her mother had taken a bad fall, and Cone was going to her childhood home in Randolph to take care of her.

She ended up staying for nearly two months.

As her mom’s health declined, Cone put her life on pause. She missed work. She kept pushing back her flight home to Colorado. The toll at the airport’s parking garage continued to grow.

Her mother’s family doctor, Dr. Ken Borie, had told Cone that Gifford might be able to cover some of the expenses related to caring for her mom at the end of her life.

So Cone called the hospital and got a grant that she says helped her afford to stay in Vermont and serve as her mom’s caregiver.

“It made all the difference, really, in this journey with my mom at the end of her life,” she said.

“There was so much more ease for me in those final days and the ability to just be there and be relaxed and present.”

The funding she received came from a program called the Last Mile that helps support Gifford patients with a terminal illness or end-of-life diagnosis and provides assistance to families as they navigate end-of-life.

Ashley Lincoln remembers meeting with her colleague, Lynda McDermott, a nurse at Gifford, who pitched the idea of organizing a motorcycle tour as a fundraiser to support end-of-life care at the hospital. That was 20 years ago. At the time, Lincoln was working in development and almost immediately started working to make the ride a reality.

“At first I was hesitant, but after my visit with Lynda, I thought, ‘this is a great idea’,” she said. “What a way to bring new life to the organization that could really impact others.”

That first year, over 70 motorcycle riders raised nearly $7,000. The money went towards helping patients pay for alternative pain therapies that weren’t covered by insurance, like massage, reiki and acupuncture.

Since then, the fundraiser has raised nearly $2 million to provide thousands of patients with support far beyond palliative care.

“I have often just referred to it as our own Make-A-Wish fund because every request is really unique to that family,” Lincoln said.

One patient she worked with had never been to the ocean and wanted to see it before he died, so Lincoln planned a trip for him to visit the coast of Maine. Another patient wanted to take his grandson to a Red Sox game. The fund paid for the tickets. There was a patient who needed to get specialized treatment at a hospital in Boston. He received gas cards for the drive and lodging for him and his wife.

“I’ve got hundreds of examples of the way that we’ve been able to say yes,” Lincoln said.

That has included planning more elaborate events, like for hospital-bound patients who wanted to marry a partner before they passed away.

Over the years, Lincoln has helped organize several weddings at the hospital.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got the food, I’ve got the music, I’ve got the decoration,’” she said. “We’d go over to the thrift shop and ask if we could get a pretty dress, or a nice suit.”

Ceremonies took place in a private garden courtyard, and conference rooms were transformed to host receptions. Lincoln would ask her musical colleagues to play the guitar and sing. Some clinicians would perform in between seeing patients, still wearing their scrubs.

“We did it all,” she said. “So the family could sit and enjoy their loved one at whatever stage they were at.”

As of this year, after 20 years of direct involvement, Lincoln is no longer managing the Last Mile Fund. That role has shifted to Tayo Kirchhof, the senior director of development and community engagement at the hospital.

Recently, Kirchhof said it’s allowed an older man to afford a headstone for a loved one, assisted with travel expenses for a daughter to visit her declining mother, and helped pay for funeral expenses for a young woman who passed in a car accident.

It also helped cover cremation services for Tessa Cone’s mom, after she passed away in October.

“To not have as big a worry around the financial pieces because there is support like this, just was one of the biggest gifts of this whole experience for me,” Cone said.

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Join us for this year’s Last Mile Walk, Ride, and Run August 14 & 15! To register or learn more about The Last Mile event visit giffordhealthcare.org/lastmile.