History of Ambulance Wish International
On 26 February 2007 Stichting Ambulance Wens was established in the Netherlands as an addition to the care for immobile terminally ill patients. There are still too many patients who die without having been able to conclude things in this final phase of their life. One of the causes is the inability to realise certain wishes because the patient is no longer mobile and other existing facilities fall short. Therefore, their foundation was started to help people who are dependent on transport by ambulance.
For the founder of Stichting Ambulance Wens Kees Veldboer (1959-2021), while employed and working as an ambulance driver, one particular occurrence was the trigger for starting Stichting Ambulance Wens. In Rotterdam while driving the ambulance, Kees Veldboer realized the last wish of the meanwhile deceased former sailor Mr Stefanutto. This patient very much wanted to sail on a ship one last time, and so they did. You can read the detailed story of this event on our website under the heading ‘our stories’. Other examples of what we can do for people with a life-threatening disease and a short life expectancy are for example a visit to the beach, a visit to a dear or loved one who is not mobile anymore either, a visit to a certain place that holds special memories for the patient, etc. Simple things in fact. But also more elaborate wishes can be realised. These include making a boat trip, visiting a concert or attraction etc. Obviously and needless to say, all this is carried out under the supervision of professional ambulance crew, in an ambulance with a comfortable stretcher.
Watch a short documentary about the founder of Ambulance Wish – HERE
Ambulance Wish is now in several countries:
Netherlands: https://www.ambulancewens.nl/en
Belgium: http://www.ambulancewens.be/
Germany: https://wuenschewagen.com/
England: https://www.ambulancewishfoundation.org.uk/
Ecuador: https://www.facebook.com/FundacionAmbulanciaDeseo/
Israel: https://www.keshet-hamishalot.org.il/
Austria: https://www.facebook.com/wuenschewagensuedtirol/
Sweden: http://önskeambulansen.se/
History of Ambulance Wish in Australia
Queensland is the first to bring this program to Australia (by Palliative Care Queensland – Ambulance Wish Qld), followed by Victoria (by RFDS – Memory Lane) and then WA (by Ambulance Wish WA).
SA is the fourth state in Australia to operate the program.
Ambulance Wish SA is extremely grateful to the Ambulance Wish Queensland team for supporting to development of Ambulance Wish SA.
History of Ambulance Wish South Australia
The Ambulance Wish South Australia program has been under development since 2021. Palliative Care South Australia and St John SA have been been working with other community organisations and agencies to develop the program. In 2023 a formal collaboration was formed between Palliative Care SA, St John SA, Flinders University, with PCSA as the lead agency.
PCSA CEO, Shyla Mills, attended the first Ambulance Wish International conference in the Netherlands in 2019. The founder of Stichting Ambulance Wens Kees Veldboer main rule for the program was “the program always has to be free for the participants”.
Below is an image from this conference with Kees front and centre.
