In critical need
Cancer Patient Care, a private, nonprofit organization that has provided invaluable services for nearly a half century, is reaching out to the community for help. It needs wheelchairs.
“We were down to two,” CPC Executive Director Heidi Cook said, while guiding a recent visitor on a tour through the agency’s warehouse at 1507 E. Sprague Ave.
Yes, the cupboards are nearly bare.
Cook said Cancer Patient generally has about two to three dozen wheelchairs available. However, over the past several months, the supply has reached critical condition.
“Last December, we got down to one wheelchair. It never happened in the history of the organization,” said Cook. “They come in and go out faster than we can nearly log them. It’s not that they are not being returned, it’s just that there is more of a need.”
Cook said, ideally, Cancer Care would like to have about four to five dozen wheelchairs. Cook began a campaign blitz last week, and the supply is slowly increasing. The agency accepts nonmotorized wheelchairs with foot rests.
“Perhaps grandma passed away, and someone’s got all grandma’s stuff in storage. What are we going to do with it?” Cook said. “CPC is a good place to give.”
CPC’s largesse to the community doesn’t stop with wheelchairs. Founded in 1958, the agency provides its low-income patients with other health-care equipment as well as food supplements, prescription assistance, emergency assistance for heat, lights, water and groceries, transportation to cancer-related appointments and breast cancer screening.
It also provides the intangible — emotional support.
Each year, the paid staff, equivalent to 7 ½ people, sees between 200 and 300 people who meet the income guidelines and have been diagnosed with cancer. Cook said about 8,000 hours of volunteer time is given yearly.
Dalvine Wanker, 48, learned about CPC about nine months after she was diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytocis in April 2000. LCH is a rare cell disease that behaves like a cancer in its more serious forms and therefore is usually treated by cancer specialists. Wanker, who had been shuttling from doctor to doctor for six years complaining of soreness, fatigue and severe headaches, has multi-system LCH. It affected her brain stem, spin, spinal fluid, long bones, skin and jaw.
Although she and her husband, James, were working and have medical insurance, the astronomical medical bills were eating away at their income.
“We had trouble with paying a winter power bill and Avista told us about it (CPC),” Wanker said.
Since becoming sick, Wanker has turn to CPC for food supplements, a bathtub transfer bench, bladder protection products and a wig. CPC also helped the Wankers, who have a blended family of seven children, pay their utility bills.
She said CPC was the only organization that responded to her needs and feels one reasons others didn’t is because she does not have a “brand-name cancer.” When she was at Valley Hospital and Medical Center, Cancer Care social workers and staffers would send cards and flowers and visit.
“It’s just phenomenal,” Wanker said, “It’s not just a community resource. These people are friends and family.”
After three years of weekly chemotherapy and another four months of experimental around-the-clock chemo, Wanker has been out and about for six months. She said she would do anything in the interest of CPC.
“The county needs to be sure that this organization continues to have the things they need for clients. They are very, very client orientated, but by doing that, it makes them so community orientated.”