THE nurses and allied health staff at the John L. Grove centre were never comfortable throwing themselves into a political campaign.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But their belief in the Launceston slow-stream rehabilitation facility outweighed their unease, and over a month they garnered more than 1000 petition signatures, staged a public protest outside the centre, memorably hijacked a media event by Treasurer Joe Hockey and hit the streets to lobby the community for support.
The community got behind them and yesterday John L. Grove staff and patients were "celebrating to the max" after Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced federal funding for a further two years.
Fixed-term federal funding had been due to expire next month and there were no guarantees over its future.
Nurse unit manager Lyn Lendvay said everyone was ecstatic after a very uncertain couple of months.
"The staff have been working under really difficult circumstances and I have to say I'm so proud, they've been so professional and committed to the patients and the facility all the way through," Ms Lendvay said.
Ms Lendvay said they would be relieved to leave the campaign behind them and focus on their jobs.
"We're nurses and our core business is caring for the patients and campaigning politically just doesn't come easy for us," she said.
"But I think we had such support from the community and our ex-patients were so fantastic in coming on board, and we had something to fight for too."
Patient Barbara Medic said the last month had been frightening and horrible and she whooped for joy when she heard the news.
"It's absolutely wonderful," she said.
Ms Medic will not walk again after an operation on her spine and staff at John L. Grove are helping her live without the ability to use her legs.
She said she had been worried the centre would close and she would be sent home before she was ready.
"Normally I live on Flinders Island, and I live on my own, I don't have close relatives or anybody there to help me," she said.
"I have no other place to go. I have no money besides the pension. I can't afford private facilities or nurses or anything like that."
Fellow patient Stephen Fagg, who spoke publicly last week in support of the facility, said he was happy but unsurprised by the announcement.
"I knew it would happen. It had to. You couldn't put the bulldozer in on this," Mr Fagg said.