A member has expressed gratitude for the compassion shown by staff at RACQ's Warwick store.
The first interaction with member Bruce McGowan was a nerve-wracking experience for RACQ’s Haleigh Maag.
When Haleigh began dealings with Bruce in Warwick about five years ago, she was a new starter with little experience.
“Being so new to RACQ at the time, serving someone with a confident demeanour like Bruce was definitely intimidating,” Haleigh said.
“He is the most intimidating man I have ever met, not that he would like me to say that. Here I was, straight out of training, having to do insurance for the first time on my own and answer all his questions for one-and-a-half hours.”
Haleigh could not have imagined that this shaky introduction would blossom into a friendship, forged amid heartwrenching circumstances.
Haleigh Maag and Bruce McGowan in the RACQ Warwick store.
About six months after that initial meeting, Bruce returned to the store, seeking to transfer a car insurance policy.
Haleigh inquired about his reason for the change.
“He said to me, ‘Actually, my wife has just been diagnosed with cancer and she finds it really hard to get into this car’,” Haleigh said. “After that, I would have lots of boxes of tissues next to me whenever Bruce would walk in because I could read his face and see that she was deteriorating.”
Bruce’s wife Belinda died in 2021 at the age of 51 from lung cancer.
She was a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force and just 11 days short of marking 33 years of service.
“Her death was classified as a death in service caused by service,” Bruce said.
The cuddle bed donated to Warwick Hospital.
Before her death, Belinda had advocated for the Warwick Hospital to have a ‘cuddle bed’ in their palliative care unit.
The beds are double the size of normal beds, allowing partners or family members to be closer to patients receiving palliative care.
It was Belinda’s dream that Warwick and other regional hospitals would have access to the beds that provide comfort to patients and their loved ones.
Although Warwick Hospital didn’t have cuddle beds at the time, staff did their best to replicate one for Belinda using available equipment and space.
After Belinda’s death, Bruce ensured her wish became a reality and the first cuddle bed, “infused with Belinda’s love and kindness”, was delivered to Warwick Hospital in 2022.
Bruce has since established the Belinda McGowan Foundation to fundraise for more cuddle beds in rural hospitals.
“Cuddle beds are for when your partner is dying, as they allow you to cuddle and be close to them,” Bruce said.
“They are not readily available in rural and regional hospitals. We thought that was something we needed to fix, so we developed the foundation.”
Haleigh and other members of the Warwick RACQ store stepped up to help Bruce establish the foundation.
“The RACQ team here at Warwick has established all the financial side of the foundation and that’s a lot of work,” he said.
“Setting up the charity presented a whole new set of different parameters for the staff and me, so we said, ‘Let’s do this together’; that’s how we approached it.”
Haleigh, now Member Engagement Manager at RACQ Warwick, said supporting Bruce before and after Belinda’s death had been an emotional experience for her and the team.
“One day he brought Belinda into the office to meet us all and he had to carry her in,” she said.
“To go through that story and see her pass away… to attending the first presentation of a cuddle bed and seeing her pictures come up, we experienced every heartfelt emotion that we had felt for the past five years.”
Belinda McGowan.
It was Belinda's dream that Warwick and other regional hospitals would have access to the beds that provide comfort to patients and their loved ones.
Bruce relishes the relationship he has built with the Warwick team and the compassion they have shown.
“When you come in to cancel insurance because your wife has passed away, they are confronting scenes,” he said.
“The team here already knew the background, so they managed that situation really well and have been very supportive.
“That local knowledge made all the difference in this situation because the compassion and the care they showed was genuine.
“RACQ Warwick is very much a part of the cuddle beds because they went through all of the process.”
Bruce hopes to deliver up to 12 cuddle beds to rural hospitals this year, with Inglewood, Goondiwindi and a second bed for Warwick on the list.
Visit thebelindamcgowanfoundation.org.au to learn more or donate.