MAHE organises run, cycle ride on World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) observed World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on Saturday with ‘run and ride for dignity’, a cycling and running event organised by the Manipal Hospice and Respite Centre (MHRC), a unit of MAHE.

The event carried a message to the community — every person living with a serious or life-limiting illness deserves to live with comfort, dignity, and care until the very end.

Maj. Gen. Mathews Jacob, pro vice-chancellor, Health Sciences, MAHE, flagged off the cycle ride at 5.15 a.m. from Mangaluru City Corporation Circle to MHRC, covering a distance of about 68 km via Surathkal, Padubidri and Udupi.

Sudhakar Kantipudi, chief operating officer, Teaching Hospitals, MAHE, and Seema Rao, director and consultant in Palliative Medicine, MHRC, flagged off the run at 6.30 a.m. from Coin Circle, Manipal.

Around 150 cyclists and 150 runners took part in the two events, a MAHE release said.

The theme of this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is ‘Pain Management: An Essential Part of Palliative Care.’ Palliative care addresses physical symptoms as well as the emotional, social, and spiritual suffering of patients and their families.

Many patients with advanced cancer, organ failure and other chronic illnesses spend their final months in uncontrolled pain, with repeated hospital visits and in isolation. Often this happens because their families are unaware that palliative and hospice care exists, or they seek it only in the last days. Through the run and ride, MHRC sought to make people aware that palliative care is not about giving up on treatment but about improving the quality of life, the release added.