Cancer Survivor A Christmas Angel Former Patient Adopts Struggling Families

It’s quite a story how Roxy Hunt became a Christmas angel.

An admiring friend thought Hunt should tell it to the newspaper. She obliged, but warned first that she’d choke up.

“In 1990, 20 days after my 36th birthday, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

She recalled the chemotherapy, the radiation therapy. She mentioned that her four children lost their father, her former husband, that year.

She and her husband, Dave, had just moved the family to Post Falls, where they had few friends.

“It was a rough Christmas for us,” she said, her voice cracking. “There were lots of expenses.”

But she survived. By Christmas 1991, she was looking for a way to help another family through a similar crisis.

She turned to Mary Olson, a co-worker at Albertson’s bakery. Olson agreed to help Hunt provide some yuletide cheer.

“I’m sort of the little helper,” said Olson, who was inspired by the memory of being a single mother in need at Christmas.

Every year, a social worker at the North Idaho Cancer Center, where Hunt was treated, provides the name of a patient in need.

“Around the first of November, I start calling anyone I can think of” to help with the project, Hunt said. Her grown children in Post Falls and family in Yakima always contribute money, gifts, homemade goodies.

Businesses fill special requests.

“A sweater, a tie, a doll, whatever. Everybody’s been wonderful,” Hunt said. “I got an envelope with 53 cents in it from one woman. That went to buy something for the kids.”

This year, the recipients were a Coeur d’Alene cancer patient and her five children.

Early this week, there were nearly 80 packages crammed into Hunt’s living room. About 40 people had contributed. Hunt and Olson wrapped most of the presents. The gift tags read “From the Christmas Angels.”

The women took some of the kids shopping, so they could get presents for their ailing mother.

Hunt said her husband is very supportive of the time-gobbling project. The two of them own Hunt’s Produce, and always donate food.

“We take enough groceries to last them a week. If they’re not able to, we fix them the Christmas dinner,” Hunt said. “And we donate a tree if need be.”

When Hunt and Olson delivered the presents Tuesday evening, the ailing mother was overwhelmed.

“The 12-year-old boy gave me a big hug and had a tear in his eye,” said Hunt. “He said, ‘Thank you for the presents.’ It made it all worthwhile.”

None of the families have turned down the offer of help.

“Our first two were most touching to me,” Olson said. “The first one was a young woman with a 12-year-old daughter. She died shortly after Christmas.”

Said Hunt: “All but two so far have been terminal cancer cases. Most of them, it’s been their last year. Last year, I did a family of seven in Hayden Lake who lost their father at Thanksgiving.”

The contact with cancer victims can revive painful emotions for Hunt.

“There’s anger, there’s depression, there’s ‘Why me?’ “You don’t have a million dollars to say ‘Here, go find a cure,”’ she said.

Hunt’s doctor told her it would take 10 symptom-free years before she could consider herself cured of cancer. At 43, she’s grateful for the extra years she’s been given.

“I have two grandchildren I thought I’d never be able to see.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo