Cancer sucks. It sucks for the person who has it, it sucks for the family and friends who are watching their loved-one deal with it. It sucks even more when those family and friends have no idea what to do or how to help, and are left feeling even more sucky in their avoidance of the sick individual or ineffectual attempts to offer assistance.

My beautiful, independent, artistic mother would have been 70 today, were it not for a brain tumor that cut her extremely active life short five years ago. We saw some signs that something was wrong, but were still not fully prepared when we were told she had a mass in her brain. And we really were not fully prepared when she died eleven months later after a valiant attempt to not be a statistic, even though we knew from the outset that she was, indeed, going to be a statistic.

So, in honor of Mom’s birthday, I am asking you to consider making a difference in a cancer patient’s life by donating to one of my favorite local non-profit organizations.

I was hired by Hope Cancer Resources four months before mom was diagnosed. (Talk about “mysterious ways”!!!) It was my first “real job” in fundraising after I returned to college in my late 30s to finish my BA degree. I was thrilled to be headed down a career path that had a goal after years of just taking a job because it sounded interesting.

The mission of the organization is to help patients and their families when cancer is diagnosed and financial and psychological needs are not being fully managed. They provide a bridge – or a net perhaps – that can help carry a patient from diagnosis to completion of care without fear of losing their home or upsetting their family stability. They can alleviate fears that come with a diagnosis of cancer that having nothing to do with the cancer itself. Here are some examples of assistance they provide:

Did you know that a co-pay for some cancer medications can reach over $500.00 a month?? How quickly would that kind of bill wreck your family budget? Hope Cancer Resources will make sure that patients are enrolled in any pharmaceutical assistance programs available to them and will help cover costs of those medications not included in any programs.

If a patient is employed at an hourly job, the time off work needed to get treated or to rest after chemotherapy can mean the difference between paying the bills and being suddenly on the brink of eviction. When a family is so overwhelmed by medical expenses that they can’t pay their rent or utilities or car payment, Hope Cancer Resources will assist with those payments to make sure the family stays in a safe home situation.

For many patients, just getting to their scheduled appointments is a challenge. Sometimes they are unable to drive because of their diagnosis or the medications they’re taking. Very often, they have no one to rely on for their weekly – or in the case of radiation treatments, daily – treatments. For those patients, there is a fleet of vans available to pick up the patient, deliver them to appointments, and take them home.

Hope Cancer Resources also provides social workers who meet with patients at the local oncology clinic as soon as they are diagnosed, and follow their journey through treatment and recover as much, or as little, as they are needed. They provide a place to go to cry, get angry, ask questions, or even to discuss challenges that might be going on in the family due to the diagnosis.

A diagnosis of cancer can turn a family upside down, and create stress that is detrimental to the healing and recovery process. Hope Cancer Resources is one resource in Northwest Arkansas that strives to patch that wound.

If you are considering making charitable gifts this holiday season, I would be grateful if you made one to Hope Cancer Resources in memory of my mother, Cheryl Whillock. Her legacy lives with me and my family every day, and with your donation, it could live in even more families in my community dealing with a cancer diagnosis.