The compassion, care and experience of the team at the Otago Community Hospice are imprinted on Neville Dippie's memory.
His wife, Gaynor, died at the hospice in November last year and now he and his two sons, Martin and Allan, are committed to helping the organisation.
When Mrs Dippie was admitted to the hospice, the family did not know what to expect from its services.
However, the caring nature of everyone the family came in contact with, from nurses and doctors to volunteers, far exceeded their expectations, Mr Dippie said.
"It was a fantastic experience . . . The whole facility was so wonderful. It was phenomenal what the doctors could do," he said, in regards to pain control and patient care.
"Gay's final weeks were much more comfortable than what we could have imagined."
Because he and his wife lived in Wanaka and had travelled to Dunedin for care, Mr Dippie spent a lot of time at the hospice with her, and his family supported him.
"We were able to stay at the hospice and we did that on a rostered basis, so that there was always someone with Gaynor."
To help him pass some of the time, he decided to take on a "little project".
After chatting with the maintenance man at the hospice, he found there was no suitable shed and decided to do something about it, he said.
Mr Dippie funded and built a small shed for the hospice last year and now plans were under way for a $35,000 storage facility thanks to him and his sons.
The family could not speak highly enough of the hospice which was why they decided to approach the organisation and offer to help in any way they could.
The need for a large storage facility was "one need we could see".
Mr Dippie described it as a "pragmatic way to help".
He and his family saw the hospice as "an important facility" and felt more needed to be done to keep it out of financial difficulty which prompted them to plan more fundraising ventures for the future.
"It's quite deplorable how they are financed in this country," Mr Dippie sen said.
He hoped the new government would follow through with its stated intention of helping the nation's hospices so they no longer had to rely on community donations.
"It's not acceptable that the hospice has to rely on community funding."
However, he did applaud the active way the Otago Daily Times was drawing attention to the hospice through the "Help the Hospice" campaign.
The $200,000 target would be reached and exceeded, he believed, and said it was wonderful to see people contributing.
