Four years ago, Candy Climo helped her family plant a paddock with tiny pine seedlings with the intention of growing them into Christmas trees. Now, two years after she passed away from breast cancer, her family is selling the trees as a fundraiser for hospice.
All the proceeds from the sale of the trees near Brightwater will go to Nelson Tasman Hospice which cared for Candy through home visits and later at its palliative care unit in her final days. One of her two daughters, Michala Keene, holding Candy’s 12-week-old granddaughter in her arms, says the family planted about 90 trees and felt it was fitting that hospice receive the proceeds.
“I think she would think it was pretty cool. She loved the nurses. Mum struggled with breast cancer for four years and she was in and out of hospice a few times. They would come out and look after her at home – they were amazing.
“Then she was in hospice until she passed and we just parked up in the family room and never came home for that last week.”
With the trees now grown and ready for harvesting, Michala’s father Joe Keene suggested selling them and donating the proceeds to hospice as a way of honouring Candy at Christmas.
The family hopes all the trees will sell at between $30 and $50. Michala can be contacted on 022 342 8369 to arrange a time to choose a tree.
