Six rooms completed in the Rotary Lodge Port Macquarie extension are open for business.
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The next six rooms are expected to be operational by the end of February.
Forster resident Christine Liccione, who is staying in one of the new rooms, gave the room the thumbs up.
She said her room was spacious and comfortable.
“From a health issue, it has been vital to me,” Ms Liccione said about Rotary Lodge.
“Otherwise I would have had to travel up every single day [for radiotherapy treatment] from Forster which physically would have been difficult for me.”
The 12-room extension will provide more flexibility to meet the changing market in line with Port Macquarie Base Hospital’s development and services.
The new rooms, which are compliant with the disability services standards, are designed to be comfortable, functional and easy to maintain.
Support towards the fit-out of the new rooms has been received from Rotary Clubs, individuals, Hastings Cancer Trust and Holiday Coast Credit Union.
March 20 will mark the extension’s official opening.
At that time, one of the lodges’s wings will be named in honour of Ron Walesby and the naming of the other wing will recognise Richard Marocco.
They were both were instrumental in the lodge’s development over the years.
Rotary Lodge Board chairman Phil Hafey said the board was working with both the federal and state governments for ongoing support for the facility and financial assistance with building stage four.
The timing of the next extension, which will consist of a further 12 rooms, relies on funding availability.
Rotary Lodge is one of the largest self-funding Rotary community projects in Australia and the one of the largest not-for-profit accommodation providers for patients and carers attending hospital and medical facilities.