‘I live with ‘I could have done more, I should have done more’. But I didn’t have the knowledge and I didn’t have the skills. If you have palliative professionals advising you than surely you’d have the knowledge that you did you absolute best and can live with that,” Ms Hill said.

Ms Hill and Trish Taylor are calling for Dubbo to join Cancer Council’s campaign and sign the petition for the NSW government to fund at least ten additional full-time palliative physicians, 129 more full-time palliative nurses and culturally appropriate specialist palliative care services for Aboriginal people.

Ms Hill said it was a horror watching her husband and not knowing what to do. However there was an incredible difference when he was admitted to Westmead Hospital’s palliative care, she said.

“It gave him dignity, they controlled his pain, and they let him feel like he was in control whereas before he had been spiralling,” Ms Hill said.

“I just don’t want other people to go through that horror, that helplessness. It wasn’t his GPs fault, he tried everything he could, but he couldn’t control the pain, whereas the palliative doctors are simply amazing. They know how to listen and how to talk and how to give dignity.”

Ms Taylor has been through a similar experience with a loved one when her uncle died of cancer at 57-years-old.

“Palliative care keeps them well for as long as possible. Not so much extending the length of their life but keeping them well for as long as possible,” Ms Taylor said.

“It’s not just the last two weeks, the last week, palliative care is the whole period from the point when they say you’ve got a life-limiting disease.”

Cancer Council NSW has aimed for 10,000 signature on the petition, which will then be given to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

Both Ms Hill and Ms Taylor said they were confident there would be change if they reached the 10,000 signatures.

Cancer Council had a great track record of successful campaigns, Ms Hill said, such as the ‘no hat, no play’ initiative in schools and the 2015 Saving Life campaign.

Those who wish to sign the petition can do so at the Farmers’ Markets on Saturday between 8am and 12pm. A palliative care campaign launch event will also be held at the Dubbo branch of the Macquarie Regional Library on Monday February 27 at 10am.