Sometimes it's the littlest things that make the biggest difference.
The Order of the Eastern Star, founded in 1867, now with more than a million members in 20 countries, is a fraternal organization of men and women who are either Master Masons or related to one. They have been making cancer dressings in B.C. and the Yukon since 1945.
In Prince George the Order of the Eastern Star has been in existence since 1925 and the program has been available since 1950.
There are more than a dozen people that gather about three Mondays a month from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the basement of the downtown Masonic lodge to create the dressings.
"Everybody knows somebody who has been touched by cancer," said Roberta Barnes, 47-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
"We would like to emphasize these dressings are free to any cancer patient in need in the province. They have to be referred by the cancer clinic, a doctor or their healthcare nurse. People don't realize how expensive dressings can be for cancer patients and for some patients. What we donate is only a fraction of what they need. I have seen invoices for when patients pay for dressings and it's enough to rock your socks, I'll tell you. So it's really important that we keep providing this service to the patients."
The workers, some who have been volunteering for more than 50 years, cut gauze and cotton batting, then assemble the dressings, wrap in a protective paper called BioShield, and bind with autoclave tape. The tape has white stripes on it that turn black to indicate successful sterilization.
Once sterilized by the University Hospital of Northern B.C., the packages are distributed to staff at the hospital, the cancer clinic, Hospice House or passed along to local cancer patients at no charge.
Although medical procedures have become less invasive over the years, there is still a great need for the dressings and with decades of experience behind them, these volunteers continue to provide this service year after year. Altogether in B.C. and the Yukon, there have been more than 20 million dressings created.
There were 522 volunteer hours recorded in Prince George and 14,782 dressings were made by the local chapter.
The volume of dressings created in each session varies greatly. For example, a couple of Mondays ago, the Eastern Star volunteers created 140 four-inch-by-four-inch dressings and 22 eight-by-10 bandages and packaged them for sterilization.
The organization has several events to fundraise for the project including collecting cancelled stamps to sell, holding bake sales and garage sales.
The Order of the Eastern Star also offers a bursary for cancer education to support doctors and medical personnel, a library fund to provide up-to-date information to cancer centres so patients can educate themselves as well as special projects that vary over the years.
Call Sandy 250-964-6233 or Roberta at 250-964-4577 for more information about getting cancer patient dressings.
