Patients receiving cancer treatments at Boundary Trails Health Centre are sitting a lot more comfortably than before thanks to the work of a local young woman and financial support from the Morden Community Thrift Store.
The store, responding to a grant application from Emily Bennett and her mother Tara, last fall committed $45,000 towards the purchase of 10 heated chemotherapy chairs for the regional health centre.
Those chairs arrived at BTHC earlier this month, and last week Bennett and reps from the thrift shop got the chance to check them out and hear the impact they’re already having on patients.
“I have Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma, and I finished treatment in this unit in January,” shared Bennett. “I’m still waiting to see if I need radiation, but for now I’m done chemotherapy.”
In the wake of her diagnosis last summer, Bennett was at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg where she got the chance to experience the comfort of heated chairs during long hours spent receiving her initial treatments.
“We just kind of fell in love with them,” she said, “and me and my mom thought why does Winkler not have these? This would benefit so many people.”
They wrote up a grant proposal and soon after heard back from the thrift shop, who were eager to foot the bill to swap out all the treatment chairs in the cancer care unit at BTHC.
“So far I think people are liking them,” Bennett said. “They’re heated … from what I know from personal experience, it gets cold when you’re sitting in an infusion chair for hours. And while there are heated blankets, they can only hold heat for so long. This will keep the heat constant, especially during things like blood transfusions, which are super cold. So it’s beneficial to a lot of patients like me who often have trouble regulating their temperature thanks to their treatments.
“I’m very proud to have been part of the process that got these chairs in this room in this building,” Bennett added. “It’s an incredibly hard road to travel, and if I can help make it easier for even a handful of people, I will have made a worthwhile legacy. There’s no downside to this. This is something that will benefit hundreds of people per month.”
In fact, the unit administers upwards of 200 treatments monthly, said Lindsay McLaren, clinical resource nurse, and the chairs have gotten a big thumbs up from everyone who’s had the chance to use them so far.
“It has very much so impacted our patient experience being in the unit. It’s just a little bit extra comfort that we can provide our patients,” McLaren said, noting some people are required to spend up to eight hours sitting in these chairs while undergoing chemo.
On behalf of the patients and staff at BTHC, McLaren expressed her gratitude to everyone who made this donation possible.
“A huge thank-you to all the community members that are supporting these businesses that are willing to donate big purchases to the hospital,” she said. “It’s something that impacts everybody … their support is that little extra help and love that they can show their loved ones and friends.”
Joan Mikolasek and Debra Riter were on hand last week from the Morden Community Thrift Store to see the chairs in action.
It’s gratifying to see the funds raised by the non-profit, volunteer-run shop being put to such amazing use, Mikolasek said, noting that supporting local health care services and patients is a priority for the board of directors.
“We are very thankful for all the donations that we get to be able to support things like this,” she said. “And we were more than happy to give them the money that they requested for the heated chairs.”
Facilitating the donation and the purchase of the chairs was the BTHC Foundation.
“We are very fortunate to have such an amazing thrift shop that supports our foundation,” said executive director Shannon Samatte-Folkett. “They give [grants out in] spring and fall, and so we make sure that we are thoughtful with our requests. This was one that was extremely thoughtful and beneficial for a huge amount of people in our community.”
While the foundation receives a list of potential equipment purchases from the director of BTHC each year, they also want to make sure they’re open to suggestions from the community at large, Samatte-Folkett noted.
“This particular project came straight from community. And we’re really blessed to be able to help fulfill this. It will touch so many lives in the Pembina Valley.”
