For the past 10 years, Mr Allen has struggled with the onset of motor neurone disease.

Yet his fight for life has continued since childhood when he survived polio, and his wife says he's not likely to give up soon.

Since March, the 86-year-old has come to reside at the Forrest Centre Hospice, after the couple left their Tumblong cattle farm and moved to Wagga.

"We've been in Wagga now for three-and-a-half years and I've been looking after him," Mrs Allen said.

"It's always been slow progress, he's been battling for a decade now.

"We're very fortunate, he had to go somewhere and he was fortunate enough to be able to experience this wonderful facility. It's wonderful to have him close."

Ellie Walsh is one of his round-the-clock carers. The registered nurse joined Mr and Mrs Allen, as well as the other residents and their families, on Friday to mark World Hospice and Palliative Care Day.

Ms Walsh began working in the city's nursing homes almost five years ago, before she joined the hospice staff upon its opening last September.

"You've got to be a special person to do this. You become a part of their family. You never forget anyone of them."

Dealing with the inevitable tragedy inherent in her job, Ms Walsh said, comes with a lot of care and support from her husband and children.

"You are always thinking about them. They say, 'leave it all at work', but you just can't," she said.

Having always had a passion for aged care, what cemented Ms Walsh's career pursuit came in 2014 with the loss of her own father.

"He passed away at home, which is the ideal. We are trying to make it feel as much like home as possible," she said.

Sometimes people are very scared of death. I'm here to make the residents comfortable, but also to make the families comfortable. We want the best experience for them all."

Confronting the reality of death and allaying the fears that so often accompany the conversation is a key part of the centre's objective.

"Everybody dies at some point," said centre CEO Evan Robertson.

"People need to be able to talk about death. We need to be able to talk about terminal illnesses, and what will happen.

"Death is part of life, we can't shy away from that. We need to normalise it and know that people die in many ways."

In the year since it opened, the 10-bed centre has remained consistently at capacity, with 27 residents so far coming to call it home.

The shortest stay was only seven days, and on average each resident has remained for 101 days.

As the only service of its kind in the region, residents and their families frequently travel long distances to be there.

"We wanted to make this a safe place with large rooms that can accommodate family members if they need to stay overnight," Mr Robertson said.