Meet The CEO! How Mercy Hospice Helped Me

How Nursing His Wife Of 20 Years Set Paul Couper On The Path To Make A Difference

- Cloe Willetts

Paul Couper knows only too well what it’s like to sit and hold the hand of a loved one in palliative care, watching them take their final breaths under the comforting eye of hospice staff.

The father of two and CEO of Auckland’s Mercy Hospice lost his wife Zarina to brain cancer four years ago and is now supporting others in similar situations.

Before his wife of 20 years spent her final weeks at Totara Hospice in South Auckland, the couple were busy working corporate jobs and living in their dream home with daughters Karissa and Tessa, then 14 and 9.

“The world was going along really nicely. We had the house in the country, the kids and the cats and dogs,” says Paul.

“We’d built a great future for the girls and had our whole life mapped out.”

In 2012 that abruptly changed when Zarina was suddenly diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer. “In the snap of your fingers and without any warning, life spiralled out of control,” he recalls.

Speaking with the Weekly, Paul explains how losing his wife in her early forties – and his work history – led to his appointment at Mercy Hospice.