Anna’s Story: Finishing the Song

At just 47, Anna Burns is not ready to stop living.

A single mum to a 15-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son, Anna is also a musician, currently recording an EP with her band. There’s a fierce determination about her – a refusal to let cancer define the final chapter of her story. But just months ago, she was desperately unwell.

“Several years ago, I’d been given seven months to live,” Anna says quietly. “Then I had this miraculous two years of stability.”

Like so many people in our community, she believed hospice was only for the final days. It wasn’t until she happened to speak with two people connected to Nelson Tasman Hospice that she realised something life-changing:

“Hospice is not just for dying. It’s for symptom management. It’s for respite.”

“I’ve experienced a lot of medical gaslighting in my life,” Anna shares. “At hospice, there was no fight. I didn’t have to convince anyone I needed help. Most of the time, I didn’t even have to ask. They’d ask me.”

After a prolonged period of stability, Anna was initially discharged from the hospice service, reassured that hospice would be there if she needed it again.

“That was really important to me,” she says. “I needed to know I wasn’t being dismissed.”

Alongside the gift of sharing her story, this isn’t the first time Anna has turned her experience of cancer into something that gives back. In 2021, during treatment, her friends organised the unforgettable Laugh for Cancer Cabaret – an extraordinary evening of music and performance that raised funds for Nelson Tasman Hospice. What

 began as a generous gesture from acquaintances grew into deep, lasting friendships.

“Support comes from the most unlikely sources sometimes,” Anna reflects. “And when it turns up, it’s so touching.”

Late last year, Anna knew it was time to re-engage with hospice “I was really, really sick. I was floundering.”

When Anna was admitted to the Specialist Palliative Care Unit (SPCU), she was in significant pain, barely eating, and emotionally exhausted. What she found there was not what she expected.

“There was no anxiety. No judgement. Just complete acceptance of where I was.”

Within days, her pain was under control. She was able to eat again. She could sit outside in the sun and listen to the tūī in the gardens. She had a spa bath. A volunteer gave her a hand and foot massage.

“I hadn’t been looked after like that in a long time,” she says. “That touch was so important. I had to tell her, ‘I’m not crying because of you it’s just so nice to be cared for.’”’

The impact went far beyond symptom control. Hospice care “patched me back together again,” she says – enough that she is now well enough to return to the recording studio and finish the EP she feared she would never complete.

“I seriously thought we’d have to ditch it. Now I’m going to be able to go into the studio and crack out some songs.”

“It’s not heavy metal”, she smiles, “but close to it.”

That spark of possibility, the chance to finish something meaningful, to create, to leave something behind, is what hospice makes possible.

The care extended far beyond the physical. Hospice psychologists and social workers helped steady her emotionally during a time when anxiety about the future, and memories of losing her father and brother in difficult circumstances, weighed heavily.

Feeling a lot better, Anna was discharged from the SPCU to Hospice’s community service.

Today, hospice nurses visit Anna at home every two days. They check her medication, yes – but they also check on her heart, her family, her state of mind.

For her family, too, the support has been life-changing.

“They’re so much less stressed now. It’s not just about me – it’s about the people supporting me.”

Anna is passionate, almost protective, when she talks about hospice.

“It aggravates me that people still think it’s just for dying,” she says. “People are missing out.”

Hospice is about symptom control. About respite. About psychological support. About helping people live as fully and comfortably as possible, for whatever time remains.

“It completely changes your quality of life,” Anna says.

“And when you have a terminal illness sometimes there’s not a lot of quality of life to be had. Hospice gives you those glimpses of joy again.”

Anna’s story is a powerful reminder that hospice isn’t about giving up.

It’s about living.

And thanks to the generosity of our community, Anna is still making music. Still sitting in the sun listening to the birds. Still being mum.

Still here.

Your donation ensures that Nelson Tasman Hospice can continue to provide care, comfort, and dignity to people like Anna and their families.

Please give generously today. With your support, we can ensure that everyone in our community continues to have access to this essential service, whenever they need it. Donate Funds – Nelson Tasman Hospice