The seasonal holidays have come and gone and spring is on her way. It is time to think of our cancer work and report on our most recent ways of helping those who need it most.
In 1954 we began making bandages for cancer victims free-of-charge using donated white sheets in good condition. On the advice of the B.C. Cancer Agency we graduated to the gauze material you see today. This material had to be purchased from the cancer agency and we began collecting used stamps to pay for the gauze. This system has worked well for us over the years with the community responding very well to our request to harvest the stamps from their mail and save them for us. The stamps were trimmed, sorted and delivered to the stamp committee in Vancouver, who then found the market for them. The money raised in this way was paid directly to the cancer agency and we had a credit for whenever we required material.
Now, things have changed again. The B.C. Cancer Agency wants these bandages to be sterilized before shipping to them. We do not have a way to comply with this order and so only make bandages for those who ask for them. We have now turned our attention to making crib-sized quilts, knitting afghans, and sewing those pretty bandana hats for chemo patients. These quilts and afghans are given to the babies and small children when they enter the hospital for treatment and are theirs to keep and take home with them. These brightly coloured quilts are a favourite with the children and their parents alike and quickly become the little tykes “security blankies”.
Another project for the new year is to sew personal item bags for anyone who is undergoing treatment; such bags can be stocked with patient necessities and will be kept with that patient during their stay in the clinic or accompany them if they are an outpatient.
Therefore, we ask you to continue to collect all the used stamps you receive in your mail for us, being careful to leave 1/2” to 3/4” of paper around the stamp. Any denomination or country of origin is acceptable. If you or a family member has started a collection of stamps and no longer has a use for them, we will be grateful for those stamps as well. We will find the markets for them and the money will be used to buy more material. Money from our various fund raisers support this project as well. The committee meets once or twice a month to take inventory and sew items required. The stamps can be left at the Cawston Post Office, boxes at the Seniors Centre in Keremeos and the Keremeos Diagnostic Centre. If you would like someone to pick up your stamps, please call Ina Vikner at 250-499-2702 or Eva Mitravitz at 250-499-0168.
If you have any sewing scraps or material remaining from a project, we would be delighted to receive them, especially flannelette, coloured/printed cottons, denim and left-over yarns for afghans. Our Worthy Matron, Margaret Van Blaricom, 250-499-7870, will be available to pick up donations. We do not ask for money, only a few minutes of your time to tear or cut a used stamp from your mail and call one of the numbers in this article or drop off the stamps to one of the locations listed above.
When we visit these tiny victims of cancer with their bald heads, tubes surrounding them fastened to beeping machines and see their smiles and bravery, we realize that any effort on our part to make a difference to their comfort and see the appreciation on the faces of the parents is worth every moment of our time.
Contributed by Eva Mitravitz