New nursing scholarship in memory of a lost love
Trace Richey and Neil Pennock during聽Richey's final days at St Vincent's Hospital.
It was the day of Trace Richey鈥檚 bone marrow transplant and he wanted to celebrate. 鈥淲e need wine,鈥� he told his partner, Neil Pennock.
Pennock checked with the doctors and nurses. They didn鈥檛 exactly condone the booze but said it couldn鈥檛 be worse than the chemotherapy drugs already in Richey's system to treat his cancer, the rare myelodysplastic syndrome.
Pennock bought a bottle of biodynamic pinot gris (鈥淚 got the healthiest one I could find,鈥� he says) and they drank a toast to Richey鈥檚 recovery. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what Trace was like,鈥� says Pennock. 鈥淗e was very cheeky. He was fun. He鈥檇 always try and make people laugh.鈥�
About 40 days later, Richey died of graft-versus-host disease. The new tissue rejected his body and attacked.
Trace Richey and Neil Pennock
Three years on, Pennock is determined some good should come of his partner鈥檚 death. He is donating $160,000 to establish the Trace Richey Nursing Scholarship at the University of Sydney's . The scholarship will support one full鈥憈ime or two part-time students each year to complete a .
鈥淭he nurses took a shine to Trace and I have so much love and gratitude for them,鈥� says Pennock. 鈥淭hey deal with so much trauma and they were all smiles. If that doesn鈥檛 deserve respect, I don鈥檛 know what does.鈥�
The nurses took a shine to Trace and I have so much love and gratitude for them.
The scholarship is the first gift from the , which Pennock set up in his partner鈥檚 name (the initials stand for Trace Lee Richey). He hopes to support the care of transplant patients and encourage more people to donate bone marrow.
For the past few years, Pennock, his friends and family have been shaving their heads, jumping out of planes and running the City2Surf to raise money for their cause. The foundation has also supported the construction of a new bone marrow transplant ward at St Vincent鈥檚 Hospital in Sydney.
It鈥檚 a fitting tribute to Richey, who spent his career in fundraising, working with organisations including the Children鈥檚 Hospital at Westmead and Mission Australia.
Even during Richey鈥檚 final stay in hospital, when he heard the nurses were shaving their heads to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation, he pitched in to help. He and Pennock shaved each other鈥檚 heads for the cause (by that stage Richey鈥檚 hair was falling out). 鈥淗e still looked gorgeous,鈥� Pennock says. 鈥淚t made his eyes pop.鈥�
Pennock works in finance and he smiles at the thought of Richey鈥檚 response to his fundraising efforts. 鈥淗e鈥檇 be rolling his eyes and saying, 鈥楾hat was my thing鈥�. But I think he鈥檇 be proud, too.鈥�
