Dame Malvina Major, one of New Zealand's most famous opera singers, entertains residents at the Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington just before Christmas in the mid-1990s. Mary Potter Hospice opened in 1979 at Calvary Hospital in Wellington – the first contemporary hospice in New Zealand. It was founded by the Little Company of Mary, a religious order whose mission was to care for dying people. The hospice was gifted to the people of Wellington in 1988 and operates as a non-sectarian charitable trust. As well as the hospice in Newtown, it has outpatient services around the Wellington region. Most of the people who use the hospice's services have cancer, but it also provides free care for anyone with an incurable illness who is not expected to live for very long.