Demythologizing Cancer
While some older adults may wish to avoid the subject, a group of elderly Houstonians is facing cancer head-on by ministering to its victims.
The 20 or so volunteers from South Main Baptist Church focus on a cancer hospital in the nearby Texas Medical Center complex. Each Tuesday they get a computer print-out of new patients, mark the names of (a) those who have signed in as Baptists and are (b) from 100 or more miles away. Then they make assignments. "We want to help those whose family and friends are least likely to be able to come all the way to Houston to visit," explains Linda Jones, minister to senior adults.
The group, called "Friends 'n Deeds," does four things:
• Visits each patient each week.
• Adopts patients with special needs, as identified by the hospital's social service office. Volunteers do their shopping, laundry, make airport trips.
• Find donors to give blood platelets for patients without relatives or friends to call on.
• Maintains Sojourn House, a 10-unit apartment building where outpatients and/or visiting family members can stay at low rates. "Radiation treatments, for example, can drag on for weeks," says Jones, "and patients feel well enough to be out of the hospital—but they can't leave town. Relatives want to be with them. So we let people pack in as many as they wish." Sojourn House is managed by a 70-year-old member who has cancer himself.
The outreach was started by a woman in the church whose friend had cancer. The volunteers meet once a month to update and support each other, report on changing hospital regulations, discuss resource books, and receive training.
"This gives purpose to the lives of our people," says Jones. "It's very rewarding for them. And a good thing is this: they learn that not ...
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