Our insurance claim was rejected on the basis of a pre-existing medical condition.

But not for either of us, instead for my mother-in-law Jean Bodey.

Mum had some health issues throughout 2016 and was eventually admitted to the Horsham hospital in mid-October.

She was then placed in the Wyuna rehab unit where her condition greatly improved by the end of October.

This gave us the confidence of spending Christmas with our daughter in Queensland.

In early November, I booked our one-way flight for December 16 and included a flight cancellation insurance policy.

But on November 22, mum’s condition had suddenly deteriorated and she was re-admitted to the hospital.

The outcome was not going to be good for mum and we knew then to cancel our flight and also submit the insurance claim for the flight. 

But the claim was rejected because of mum’s pre-existing medical history.

I contacted the insurance company and pleaded my case and asked them to show us some compassion at this very awkward time, but to no avail. 

Mum sadly passed away on December 22 and I again made contact with the insurance agency to advise them of her death, but still no compassion from them.

Our $335 loss means a lot to us, but only a small sum for the insurance company.

BARRY BARNETT

Horsham

WE would like to thank the many people who have helped with the Ararat Skate Park fundraising for the past 18 months.

Your support to us has been incredible and we want you to know we appreciate your help by purchasing raffle tickets or buying cake from the cake stall.

If people cannot come while we are in the street, quite often donations are given.

You may not think this matters but it is wonderful beyond words.

The support from so many and the words of encouragement has been incredible.

We would like to thank the Ararat Rotary Club for the use of the caravan and delivering it to the street and back. They have also assisted with barbecues when requested.

Our tally is very close to $100,000. Almost half this amount is from cakes, raffles and trash and treasures – the trash and treasure effort earlier this year was fantastic with many young people helping all weekend. The rest is from grants received.

Thanks to Reg Eastick, who works tirelessly every month to help as many organisations as he can raise much needed money for the Ararat community and many great causes.

Sam Allgood from Ararat West Primary School raised more than $1500 in his fundraising efforts, approaching all schools in the Ararat area for an out-of-uniform day.

Thanks to Scott McConachie for the wood and the donations of ingredients from all the parents to help with the cooking. 

When starting out, we believed this was an almost impossible amount of money for us to achieve but with your help we have almost reached this target. 

What has happened now is so many improved upgraded plans. Much bigger and better than we could have ever dreamed.

The new proposal is to include Alexandra Gardens and Kokoda Park in future plans, thanks to the vision and encouragement of local youth. They have encouraged the bigger picture with much broader plans.

GWENDA ALLGOOD, MARGARET DUNMORE, SHANE ALLGOOD, GISELLE ALLGOOD

Ararat

THE year finished on a high for the East Grampians Health Service after it received the 2016 medium-sized health service of the year award.

This follows on from winning the same award in 2015 and is testament to the great work our staff and visiting medical officers do and to the strong feedback and support we receive from the local community.

Rural North West provided the inspiration for our aged care Montessori project and we thank them for that. We have an agreement with The Royal Women’s, the leading maternity health service in the state, that supports our board and offers training opportunities for our midwives.

One of our core values is about working together with all our partners, the community, other regional health services and the Department of Health and Human Services to continue to provide services that meet the needs of local people. We value any feedback that assists.

It is a bit like the Western Bulldogs in the AFL last year – a sensational result but now 17 other teams think they can do the same thing.

If they do not keep trying to improve, things can change quickly.

In 2017, we look forward to our strong partnerships continuing within the community, including the Ararat Medical Centre and Tri Star and Ararat Rural City.

We will welcome a new intake of eight medical interns, seven new graduate nurses and four enrolled nursing graduates for the first time.

Students from all disciplines will experience life in a health service and we will encourage them to return, as workforce remains a major risk. 

We also welcome Australian Catholic University as it offers the diploma of nursing training in Ararat for the first time. 

PETER ARMSTRONG

Acting CEO, EGHS