Islanders helping islanders.….

One of the cool things here on the island is that if you have can­cer, there have been two ways to get fer­ry tick­ets so you can get to treat­ment on the main­land: The Susan G. Komen Foun­da­tion (for folks with breast can­cer) and the Sorop­ti­mists’ pro­gram (for every­one else). Both have pro­vid­ed hun­dreds of trips over the years.

Now comes news that the Komen folks have had to scale back, so they are no longer pro­vid­ing that ser­vice as of the end of last month. The Sorop­ti­mist Club hopes to pick up the slack — here’s more from Vicky Thalacker:

Can you imag­ine a man, woman or child find­ing out that he or she has can­cer and that they have to go to the main­land for chemother­a­py or radi­a­tion?  Their treat­ment is for eight weeks, every day, for 40 days.  And then they find out it will cost them up to $1,500.00 to trav­el by fer­ry, plus count­less hours of wait­ing and worrying.

That is why the Sorop­ti­mist club of Fri­day Har­bor decid­ed to help the com­mu­ni­ty.  A fund was set up almost 8 years ago to help pro­vide trans­porta­tion for treat­ment appoint­ments for can­cer patients.  In the past two and 1/4 years they have helped 44 peo­ple, spend­ing a total of $20,812 on fer­ry tickets.

Now, the Susan G. Komen Foun­da­tion has can­celed their funds for San Juan Coun­ty, leav­ing women who have breast can­cer unable to receive fer­ry tick­ets to trav­el to their treat­ments. This means that the Sorop­ti­mist Club of Fri­day Har­bor will have more peo­ple to sup­port than ever before.

We need the help of our car­ing community.

Sorop­ti­mist is spon­sor­ing a din­ner on May 9th at 6:oo P.M. at Par­adise Lanes to fund the Can­cer Treat­ment Sup­port Pro­gram.  You may pur­chase tick­ets at Spa d’Bune or the Toy Box for $25.00 or you may make a tax-deductible dona­tion to Sorop­ti­mist Inter­na­tion­al of Fri­day Har­bor, P. O. Box 2856, Fri­day Har­bor, WA 98250.

The Chair of this impor­tant event is Marie DiCristi­na.  She can be reached by call­ing 378‑7595.  The Can­cer Treat­ment Sup­port Pro­gram Chair is Vicky Tha­lack­er.  Her phone num­ber is 378‑4578.  Please leave a message.

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