Strength in numbers
Auxiliary volunteers now helping at Breast Care Center
Thirty years ago, Norma Cocklin was diagnosed with colon cancer and survived. Nearly 20 years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She survived that too, with the help of Dr. Pamela Craig and Dr. Susan Roux. When Community Hospital opened its comprehensive Breast Care Center (BCC) in 2003, Cocklin joined the hospital Auxiliary expressly so she could volunteer at the BCC.
 Right, Auxiliary volunteers Martha Craig (left) and Norma Cocklin. |
“There were no volunteers designated for the Breast Care Center,” says Cocklin. “Dr. Pamela Craig’s mother-in-law, Martha Craig, said to me one day, ‘Pam says they really need help and the Auxiliary is short-staffed, so why don’t you come with me?’ As an Auxiliary volunteer, we’re supposed to put in 12 hours a month, but Martha and I felt the Breast Care Center needed more help, so we decided we’d each work 8 hours a week or 32 hours a month. Then, when they got more volunteers, we could cut back.”
No more volunteers were forthcoming.
For the past two years, Cocklin, 84, and Craig, 86, have continued to devote at least 8 hours a week to the center.
“Our first responsibility,” says Cocklin, “is to greet patients, escort them to the dressing rooms, show them how to put on their robes, and offer them a cup of tea. It’s our job to make women feel at ease in a situation where it isn’t always that easy.”
The two volunteers also restock supplies, replenish informational brochures, and work with the nurse navigator to prepare binders of information for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. They also go through the list of scheduled appointments and call each patient to confirm her visit.
“It’s our job,” says Cocklin, “to help relieve the load on the staff, and they appreciate it. We have so many people coming through the center every day. I know it’s a lot of people because I do a lot of walking. The first time I got my appointment list of patients to call, it was three pages long. I counted them up and realized I was going to escort 72 patients for the day.”
The time has come to relieve the load on the volunteers.
“A center that actually serves up to 3,000 patients a month deserves more volunteers,” says Auxiliary president Kathleen Hicks. “And, while our two volunteers are dynamos, they deserve some support. To start, we will be bringing in at least three to four more volunteers to do filing, put together charts, check in patients, place reminder calls — anything the staff needs them to do. These ladies have set a fine example for those to come.”
Martha Craig intends to continue serving the center two days a week for as long as she can. “I really enjoy this,” she says. “Some ladies who come in are quite old and they need help. I’m there for them. And the young gals who come in are often scared to death. I’m there for them too. I help people feel comfortable. And that’s important.”
For more information about the Auxiliary, please call 625-4555.