Nursing the sick a privilege, carer says

Honoured  . . . Sister Mary Chanel  received  a local hero award last week. PHOTO: JONATHAN...
Honoured . . . Sister Mary Chanel received a local hero award last week. PHOTO: JONATHAN CHILTON-TOWLE
Sister of Mercy Sr Mary Chanel has spent most of her life caring for the sick and dying.

Over the last decade, she has worked as a ward hostess providing care and support to many thousands of patients at Mercy Hospital and other Dunedin medical centres. Even after her retirement in 2011, she continued to visit and support the terminally ill.

For her efforts, she was named as one of Dunedin's heroes at the Kiwibank Local Heroes Awards last week.

Born Sabina Hardiman in 1933, Sr Mary grew up in the small town of Pyramid in Southland. She attended St Mary's school in Gore and was a talented athlete and violinist.

She decided to become a nun and joined the Sisters of Mercy in 1953,

training as a nurse.

''I just felt I have a calling to look after sick people,'' she said.

Sr Mary was a foundation sister at Mater Hospital,

which became Mercy Hospital. There she served as a charge nurse and assistant matron. She was involved in setting up the hospital's Marinoto Clinic, which opened in 1990.

Two years later, she set up the medical section of the Maryhill Mercy Centre, a rest-home in Mornington.

In the 1960s, she was a midwife at the Port Chalmers Maternity Hospital.

After Sr Mary retired from active nursing, she stayed on and worked in admissions and chaplaincy at Mercy Hospital until 2011. She was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for community service in 2005.

She continues to visit the sick and elderly in their homes today and says her favourite form of nursing is caring for the dying.

Sr Mary's sister, Alice Hardiman, who also became a nun, said her sister was very caring and concerned for people.

''People have said that she is so welcoming and puts people at ease so much,'' she said.

Sr Mary said she was humbled to have won the award and felt privileged to have been able to nurse the sick.

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