Hospital hero marks 23 years

Tara's long serving hospital auxiliary president celebrates two decades of service.

LEADING LADY: Tara Hospital Auxiliary president of 23 years Beryl Bougoure has been honoured with a commemorative plaque to mark her lengthy service. Photo: Contributed. Picture: Contributed

FAMILY tragedies led Tara's Beryl Bougoure to join the hospital auxiliary team back in 1984.

Now with 23 years as president under her belt, Mrs Bougoure said the auxiliary was still going strong and continued to contribute a great amount of time, funds and energy towards keeping the hospital in tip-top shape.

"I took over from Rhonda Conlan as president in June 1996 after starting with the auxiliary back in 1984,” MrsBougoure said.

"There were a few ladies involved with the auxiliary that I had become close to after losing my mother and they suggested I come and join them.

"I lost my son in a car accident in 1980 and I think that pushed me to get out and into the community in many ways.”

The hospital recently honoured Mrs Bougoure's service with a commemorative plaque to mark her two decades of loyal service, but MrsBougoure said the best part of the 23 years as president had been "working as part of a lovely team of ladies”.

"I am proud to say our auxiliary has probably raised over $100,000 over the years, and last year's Carols by Candlelight raised $1500 alone through the sale of raffle tickets and baking.

"The auxiliary has recently helped update the nurses' quarters for the first time since the hospital was built, installed five air conditioners, put in a brand new kitchen and got the palliative care unit up to a very high standard,” she said

Despite the auxiliary coming close to collapse a handful of times through the years, Mrs Bougoure always managed to find a way to keep things going, even enlisting the help of her husband as secretary for a stint.

"Without the auxiliary the hospital would go without,” Mrs Bougoure said.

"Some of us are getting on in years but we still battle on, and I do believe the auxiliary will continue after I finish up.

"We've got a lot of fresh volunteers getting involved around Tara in groups such as the show society.

"Things move on and new people come and go, but we always manage to find a way.”

If you want to help the auxiliary, the members are putting on a ladies' day morning tea on Saturday, June 29, with more details to come.