Salisbury University delivered 200 cancer comfort care kits for TidalHealth patients, including some in the First State.
The kits have supplies like fuzzy socks, lip balm, sugar free candies and puzzle books. Supplies were donated during the university’s Relay for Life event, where they raised more than $40,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Salisbury University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre started this project when she was inaugurated, and it is now in its second year.
Lepre said it’s the small things that often make a difference for those in treatment.
“Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with the largeness of the diagnosis or the largeness of the treatment and the situation that the little things, other things fall through the cracks,” Lepre said. “And this is an opportunity to say, ‘hey, we're not going to let those little things fall through the cracks.’”
The university invites students, faculty, and community members to donate and put together the kits - some of which go to patients at TidalHealth’s Allen Cancer Center in Seaford.
It’s a team effort to help those undergoing treatment, according to Lepre.
“While the treatment may be helping with the disease, it takes a real toll on the patient and the survivors: burns, they get cold, they get sick to their stomach,” Lepre said. “Each item that goes into the cancer care kit has been chosen to be something that someone who is undergoing a treatment might find soothing, distracting, helpful.”
The kits are now with TidalHealth. Some will go to patients at its Allen Cancer Center in Seaford, and the rest will go to TidalHealth’s Richard A. Henson Cancer Institute in Salisbury and Ocean Pines, Maryland.
Lepre anticipates the project will continue next year.
