NMCCF NEWSLETTER - March 2021
It was because of donors just like you that we were able to weather the hectic year that was 2020. COVID-19 hit our New Mexico communities hard, and for our cancer patients, it was an incredibly scary year. Because YOU gave, we were able to provide patients with nearly $100,000 in emergency support!
- More than 200 patients received emergency food bags and supplies to get them through the early stages of the spring and summer lockdown.
- Nearly 300 emergency rides were provided for transportation to our clinic for health needs.
- 20+ patients were supported with their rental or mortage needs when their housing was at-risk.
- 34 months of patients' utilities were kept on, meaning they had water, heat, and electricity during this tough time.
- 15 months of telephone plans were kept open, meaning patients could speak with their health care providers when needed.
- 58 nights of lodging were provided for patients who travelled for much-needed cancer care.
We will be forever grateful for your support in this past year. We truly couldn't have done this without you. Cancer and other life-threatening illnesses stop for no one and nothing - not even COVID-19. Are you looking to make a difference as this pandemic continues to affect our patients? Consider supporting their emergency needs!
This month, we highlight a grandmother from the Gallup area. Speaking with Brittany Karnezis, NMCC Foundation Executive Director, she stated last week,
"I am very, very thankful to the Foundation! Because of your help, I was able to pay my bills last month. Now I have enough money for gas to my appointments and to buy more firewood for the rest of the winter!"
We love gratitude!
Each month on the 3rd Tuesday, we choose focus on the things that make us grateful. Whether it be the changing weather, furry family members, or just a pretty flower on the sidewalk, we hope you find some time for gratitude today.
This week, we focus on Norman Gagne, a longtime NMCC Foundation board member.
Norm and his wife, Jane, enjoying the beautiful outdoors.
On GRATITUDE
Norm Gagne
I find myself thinking about gratitude these days. Maybe it is a factor of age or the ravages of the pandemic. Whatever the impetus, it is on my mind. As I reflect back on my nearly seventy eight years, I appreciate that I have been very lucky. I have been blessed, beginning with the accident of my birth to parents who, while no means perfect - nor I a perfect son - had the basics right. They gave me love, valued hard work and education, expected much of me and constantly conveyed in ways large and small that I could do anything I set my mind to. Sure, my hard work, many right choices and not too many bad ones, helped pave the way to my good fortune today but I have much that was beyond my control to be grateful for.
I, like many, have spent a good deal of my life pursuing things I didn’t have, not just material things but achievements, professional and personal.
Gratitude switches us to a different gear. It causes us to reflect upon the many things we have. For me the list is long.
A loving family, a great marriage, good friends, reasonable comfort, decent health and interesting and engaging things to do with my life certainly top the list. In this very challenging time, that I and those I care about are healthy, physically, emotionally and financially is a cause for gratitude.
But I write today of one part of my life that helps fill my soul. For many years, since the beginning, when Dr. Barbara McAneny asked me and others to join in realizing her vision, I have had the honor and privilege of serving on the Board of the New Mexico Cancer Center Foundation. Like any organization, profit or nonprofit, there are a lot of mundane chores. But the work that lifts me up is done by our Patient Grant Committee which I have chaired for several years. Simply stated, we help patients who are at the ends of their financial ropes to have the basic necessities of life while they are in treatment.
Each month, and more frequently during this pandemic, we consider applications for aid. I try, as best I can from my admittedly privileged perch, to mentally put myself in the place of patients seeking help. What brought them to where they are today? Why are their lives so different from mine? What would it be like to try to live like they do? Many of the stories are heartbreaking; people who are already scraping by with little are knocked over the precarious edge by their disease and their treatment. We do what we can.
In doing this work I am reminded to appreciate the many things I have. It also renews the lesson that humility and compassion for our fellow human beings wear well as we age. And for all of this I am grateful.
Did you know Gallery With A Cause at the NMCC Albuquerque location
supports our Foundation with each art purchase?
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