{"id":10383,"date":"2021-05-17T18:06:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T18:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prd-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=10383"},"modified":"2024-04-23T21:47:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T21:47:07","slug":"multicares-helping-hands-fund-is-a-lifeline-as-spokane-couple-navigates-cancer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/multicares-helping-hands-fund-is-a-lifeline-as-spokane-couple-navigates-cancer-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"MultiCare\u2019s Helping Hands fund is a lifeline as Spokane couple navigates cancer journey","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div>After receiving a cancer diagnosis, patients and families can become flooded with shock, fear, anger and sadness. Cancer can interfere with a family\u2019s ability to work, causing financial concerns and adding to the stress of treatment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cOf course, the financial impact has been huge, and it takes a lot emotionally, too,\u201d says Jeff Painter, a patient with lymphoma at <a href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/location\/deaconess-health-education-center\/cancer-blood-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MultiCare Deaconess Hospital Cancer<\/a> and Blood Specialty Center. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot just to be able to make all the different appointments and scans and chemo and everything that they have scheduled for you. It takes a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just traumatic, really,\u201d Jeff\u2019s wife Kathy says. \u201cI have ALS myself, so I\u2019m not that well physically. And having to completely take over \u2014 it just consumes your whole life. It\u2019s really exhausting, and you\u2019re worried for your spouse\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the MultiCare cancer center in Spokane, social workers like Theresa Rivera, BSW, help cancer patients like Jeff navigate their cancer journey and serve as a source of strength, care, support and hope for the entire family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheresa has been great,\u201d Jeff says. \u201cShe is always responsive, very clear on what she can help us with and looks up other resources. She\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The couple met Theresa a little over a year ago. Their journey hasn\u2019t been easy, with Jeff unable to work and Kathy making ends meet, all while fighting her own battle with ALS.<\/p>\n<p>Theresa reached out to the <a href=\"https:\/\/give.multicare.org\/our-foundations\/multicare-inland-northwest-foundation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MultiCare Inland Northwest Foundation<\/a> to help the Painter family address transportation and nutritional barriers to care through MultiCare\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/give.multicare.org\/impact-areas\/helping-hands\/\">Helping Hands fund<\/a>. Helping Hands is a special program, funded by community donations, that MultiCare social workers can use to help remove small barriers to a patient\u2019s care and healing.<\/p>\n<p>By providing Jeff and Kathy with Uber and Safeway gift cards, Theresa helped alleviate two major stressors for the couple and kept the focus on Jeff\u2019s healing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watched my wife having to run around and pick up all the ends that I\u2019ve dropped, and the Uber cards, in particular, reassured me that we weren\u2019t going to have to scramble and try to take buses or compromise my health in some way to get to appointments,\u201d Jeff shares. \u201cThat was a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The grocery gift cards have also helped the family purchase expensive Ensure supplements and groceries to counter Jeff\u2019s protein deficit and weight loss from treatment. These made all the difference for him, as Jeff has gained more than 30 pounds back and has a lot more energy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter receiving the last two Safeway gift cards you sent recently, I honestly couldn&#8217;t help but break down and cry,\u201d Kathy writes in a thank you note to Theresa. \u201cWe were also able to pick up items we&#8217;ve put off for months, due to a lack of finances, and are thrilled to now have things like band aids, paper towels, shampoo and hair ties! It&#8217;s the little things, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And to the donors who make the Helping Hands fund possible, Kathy can\u2019t express her gratitude enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey changed our lives,\u201d she says. \u201cThey made things so much better and so much more manageable. For me, it\u2019s just made all the difference in the world. I can\u2019t imagine what we would\u2019ve done without their help.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>From her social worker\u2019s perspective, Theresa loves all that she can make happen through the donor-powered fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHelping Hands is a marvelous opportunity to provide to those in need,\u201d she says. \u201cIt blesses me to provide assistance, and the MultiCare Inland Northwest Foundation helps tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>You can help families like Jeff and Kathy\u2019s overcome barriers to care and healing by giving to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/support.multicare.org\/site\/Donation2?df_id=2286&amp;mfc_pref=T&amp;2286.donation=form1\">Helping Hands fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After receiving a cancer diagnosis, patients and families can become flooded with shock, fear, anger and sadness. Cancer can interfere with a family\u2019s ability to work, causing financial concerns and adding to the stress of treatment. \u201cOf course, the financial impact has been huge, and it takes a lot emotionally, too,\u201d says Jeff Painter, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,75,79],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-10383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-foundations","category-profiles-stories","tag-featured-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MultiCare&#039;s Helping Hands fund is a lifeline to couple battling illness- MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After receiving a cancer diagnosis, patients and families can become flooded with shock, fear, anger and sadness.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/multicares-helping-hands-fund-is-a-lifeline-as-spokane-couple-navigates-cancer-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MultiCare\u2019s Helping Hands fund is a lifeline as Spokane couple navigates cancer journey - MultiCare Vitals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After receiving a cancer diagnosis, patients and families can become flooded with shock, fear, anger and sadness.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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