Annual Cancer de Mama Clinic in Riviera Nayarit: Not Just a 3 Day Event! Carole Thacker - SolMexicoNews
go to original January 24, 2013

The upcoming Cancer de Mama (Breast Cancer) Clinic in La Peñita is not just a 3 day event. There is a year of planning, collecting product, implementing ideas and organizing the clinic. Plus there is fundraising, overseeing the people we help throughout the year, thank you notes, making books and posters, searching for fabric and plastic beads and the list goes on.

Again this year, the event will take place in La Penita RV Park, and the dates will be February 1 - 3, 2013.

We get a note that someone like Kamloops has product for us. We email everyone we know in Kamloops and arrange to get the product picked up and brought down. This sounds easy BUT prosthetics weigh a lot! Our RV's are usually pretty full when we come down anyway.

We have all the clothes, food, and things we carry which probably make us close to overweight. Add prosthesis, bras, wigs, free store clothes, brochures, books, school supplies, Beanie babies, toys and endless other items we bring. This definitely is a challenge to pack and store away from even husbands eyes.

Co-coordinating the pickup takes time and knowledge of who lives where, comes down when and has has storage space...

We are so lucky that we have such a dedicated network of people who can transport. We are grateful to WestJet and other airlines that let people bring extra luggage for charities free of charge. The Cancer de Mama Clinic would not happen without people transporting product.
 
There are people that spend many hours of their time at home searching and soliciting things we need for the clinic. Other people knit and crochet Tit Bits, hats, scarves. We haunt Thrift Stores looking for things we can use in the clinic.

The executive and department heads are constantly communicating, trying to make things more efficient, coordinating, fundraising, even sending thank you's. Emails are going out every day to someone about something to do with the clinic.

When we arrive in La Peñita, it is time to unload and send everything to storage until January when we can sort it. This involves many trips to the storage and back. During this time we are also having meetings, designating, figuring out what we need to change, coordinating volunteers, selling cookbooks and planning the clinic.

We have the kitchen people who are responsible for setting up the kitchen to give all the ladies a lunch while they are waiting. The kitchen department heads are responsible for buying all that is needed each day, cleaning and chopping, cooking, serving and cleaning up, plus ordering what is needed each day for the next day. Last year we served over 800 lunches. Plus we had lunches for volunteers which had to be arranged.

The clubhouse is transformed to a bra sorting assembly line. Everything has to be sorted, counted, sized, washed, catalogued, etc. The display counters have to be found, cleaned, painted, and moved. Everything has its place. Just before the clinic the clubhouse is transformed into separate rooms so the ladies can have privacy while being fitted.

We need doctors and nurses to look at medical problems. Medical supplies need to be on hand and they have to be procured as well.

We have to advertise and make sure that Breast Cancer survivors know about the clinic. We need to reach as many as possible. This is tough without regular newspapers and in areas where people are spread out and hours away from any medical helps.

We have fitters and runners and data entry people. We have translators and story collectors. Drivers, sewers, free store people and the list goes on. It takes crews to set up the awnings and chairs, wash the vans, move the people.

For the 3 days for the clinic emotions run high and low. We see people we have seen for the last 3 or 4 years and then we don't see someone. We have new ladies, young and old. We can put a smile on their face today.

Once the clinic is over we have to reverse and tear down everything. Stuff has to be tallied. What did we run out of? What was there too much of? All has to be sorted and packed away again. We have to clean up and get the park back to normal. More loads to storage.

This year we are going to do a second clinic in Guadalajara. Our hope is we can get ladies involved who are in RV Parks up there and can bring some product with them.

We will take some of our product and some of us will go up and help the ladies who have volunteered to do the clinic up there.

Please contact Cancer de Mama for more information or if you are interesting in volunteering at cancerdemamaclinic@yahoo.ca.

The Cancer de Mama Clinic happens because there are dedicated people who contribute all year long. THANK YOU ALL.

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