Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery - helping patients get to and from treatment.

Sometimes getting to and from treatment can be incredibly straining on the patient if they are driving themselves, so why not let someone else drive you.  The Road to Recovery program offers patients free transportation to and/or from treatment whenever and wherever that might be.  The drivers are volunteers who offer their time and resources to ensure that these patients have a worry and stress free journey to/from treatment.  The drivers sometimes only drive one way and sometimes they stay through the treatment to make sure the patients can get leave as soon as they want to.

For cancer patients who don't have caregivers who can drive them to treatment, Road to Recovery offers them the piece of mind of not having to drive when that is probably the last thing they want to do. And depending on their home support system, the Road driver might be the first person who will let them talk about whatever they want to or not talk at all.
Almost all communities have a Road to Recovery coordinator who helps make sure that any cancer patient in their community that wants someone to drive them to treatment can receive the help.

If you know someone who would benefit from the Road to Recovery can call 1-800-227-2345 to find a local coordinator.  If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering as a Road to Recovery driver can contact their local American Cancer Society office - if you live near Roanoke VA and want to help out leave me a comment, I'm always looking for more Road drivers to help out with my communities.

More information: Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery is helping thousands of cancer patients get the treatment they need to beat cancer and win the fight!
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Until We Find a Cure

Patient Services Programs

One of the great aspects about my job is learning about and being involved in all of our patient services programs.  These programs are designed to help cancer patients from all walks of life feel better before, during and after treatment.  Because I think these programs are absolutely incredible and everyone should know about them, regardless if your or a loved one has cancer, I am going to highlight a different one each week.  I'm incredibly excited for week two's post already but I'm not going to share what it is, but here's a hint....it may be far from Roanoke but it makes you feel right at home.  So make sure you check back each week to learn more about each of the patient services programs that the American Cancer Society offers!


And if you can't wait for my next post you can read about all of these programs and more at cancer.org or call our toll-free number at 1-800-227-2345.

The American Cancer Society is helping you get well, helping you stay well, by finding cures and fighting back.
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Until We Find a Cure

Good things in the world

Life has been crazy so I haven't posted anything in a while but this one deserved my attention.

I wanted to share with everyone a blog that my fiance stumbled across today that I think everyone should take the time to read: 40 Extraoridnary Things Happening Right Now (from http://www.marcandangel.com/)
It talks about how even though it may seem like nothing good is going on in the world, in fact there are at least 40 things happening right this second that make life wonderful.  One of my favorites, and I have many from this list, is #36 "A breast cancer patient just found out her cancer is in complete remission." And it's very true! Every day, all day long cancer patients are finding out that they are cancer free and are now living their lives without the horrible disease.  So much of discussion about cancer talks about how many people are hearing the words "you have cancer" and not nearly enough is about the numbers of people hearing that their cancer is in remission. 

However, I did see a wonderful episode of TLC's Cake Boss last night about the American Cancer Society's campaign of A World With More Birthdays.
Here's more information about the wonderful episode: http://morebirthdays.com/page/cakeboss
The cake that Carlo's Bakery made was a wonderful representation about how the bakery staff have be effected by cancer and how they want to give back. Also, during the original airing of the episode a couple of More Birthdays commercials aired which was awesome to see! Take a look at some of these at MoreBirthdays.com and send an e-card with one of them to a friend or family member for their birthday!

The efforts that the American Cancer Society and all organizations dedicated to finding a cure for cancer are making can be seen everywhere! I love seeing all of these wonderful and inspiring stories/websites/shows. We still have a long way to go but there are definitely good stories in the world.

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Until We Find a Cure

Learning So Much!!

I started my new job with the American Cancer Society over a month ago and it has been wonderful! I got to be the main staff person for a event in the middle of June, meet community managers from other offices in the South Atlantic division at training and work with amazing volunteers/staff.  Every day is different and every day I learn something new.  I cannot wait to start working on the 2012 events with my communities and really get the chance to work with them since I came in after so many of their events were over.  The 2011 year's events are wrapping up but there is still so much work to do.

I've got big plans/ideas for my events and I cannot wait to see what they think of them. Stay tuned to learn how you can help!

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Until We Find a Cure

New Involvement with the American Cancer Society

So it's been a while since I've posted anything, but that's because the last few weeks have been kind of hectic.  After graduation I spent some time visiting family and participating in my Relay For Life event back home.  This event occurs in my hometown and it's on a much different scale than the one at Virginia Tech but it's always successful and a lot of fun.  This year I got to watch my mom run a "5k at 5am" at the event which was really cool considering it had been almost 24 hours since she had woken up the day before.
However that's not my new involvement with the American Cancer Society since I have been attending that event for 3 years now...so the question is what is it??

I am now working on the other side of Relay For Life events, I am now a full time employee of the American Cancer Society!! I get to help run 3 events near Roanoke, VA and work with the many volunteers who come into the office and attend our events.  I am so excited to be apart of such a wonderful organization that I have had the opportunity of volunteering for.  The American Cancer Society is such a wonderful organization and the people who staff it and it's volunteers are some of the most amazing people.  I cannot wait to really begin work with my 3 events, I've already had the opportunity to start working with one of them.  This job is going to be an great opportunity for me, to not only work with 3 community RFL events but also to get to work towards bettering the lives of cancer patients everywhere!

If any one out there wants to learn more about how to get involved, leave a comment or visit cancer.org and explore the American Cancer Society's website.

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Until We Find a Cure