Soup ladies warm hearts of cancer patients
Providence Regional Cancer System
Madeleine (left) and Gail (right) volunteer their time and resources to help brighten the day of patients receiving chemotherapyEvery other Wednesday, without fail, Gail and Madeleine pack up their soup and travel to Providence Regional Cancer System in Lacey, WA. There is no monetary gain and no formal accolades, simply the feeling that they are doing something special for patients receiving chemotherapy.
When asked why they go to all the trouble of cooking soup from scratch, individually packaging (to meet the health department’s guidelines) and driving the soup to the center their answer is simple: “Sometimes this is the only place cancer patients will eat.”
Gail and Madeleine are two wives who have lost their husbands to cancer. Gail’s husband, Jack, fought a hard battle with brain cancer, passing away 5.5 months after diagnosis. Madeleine’s husband, also Jack, lost his battle with Stage 4 kidney cancer 6.5 years after diagnosis. During this time Madeleine also fought and won her personal battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. So perhaps no one is more qualified to know what cancer patients need.
“My Jack was a terrible eater, even in his health,” says Gail, “he never sat down and ate a full meal, just picked at his food. When he got sick, getting him to eat became an even bigger struggle. I started to notice that he was always hungry after receiving his chemotherapy and I was so grateful for the food the center had available for patients.”
What the women didn’t like though, was the selection. Most of the food was what they called “snack foods” and not wholesome or hearty. “We pay a lot of attention to the way our soup looks and smells on top of making sure that the soup is made with quality products,” says Madeleine, “We even take requests, vegetarian and minestrone are some of the favorites.” Patients have been known to request chemotherapy on Wednesday, just to be around for the soup.
“These women are unsung heroes,” says Georgia Akin, RN, OCN in the chemo-infusion clinic. “They love and care for all our patients. They do not stick around and wait for signs of appreciation. They know what and how the patients are feeling and doing, because they too, have been there, done that.” During this month of Thanksgiving we would just like to say, “Thank You” to our soup ladies, we are grateful for you.
Reader Comments (1)
I know it is past Thanksgiving but I jus read this article and want to say Thank You and tell you that this article was one of those "feel good" reads.