Lenmed Randfontein Private Hospital donated 50 breast-cancer care boxes on 28 October to show their support for disadvantaged women dealing with breast cancer.

Marietha van Vuuren, hospital manager and organiser of the initiative for Lenmed Randfontein, said because October is the month dedicated to creating breast-cancer awareness, they as hospitals in the area felt they needed to do something for the disadvantaged patients who are going through a difficult time.

She added that the initiative also came from Dr Breytenbach, the plastic and reconstructive surgeon who does reconstructive surgery on patients who had mastectomies. She used to work in state hospitals and saw how difficult it is for the patients and what they go through.

“The whole initiative was to create something similar to a Santa Shoebox, which we then donated to CansaVive and Reach For Recovery who gave the boxes to disadvantaged patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital where the big chemo units are,” said Marietha.

She said they could choose anything from a whole list of things to put inside the boxes to make it a bit easier and better for the patients. They donated products such as hand cream, body lotion, roll-on, deodorant, lip-ice, sweets, beautiful soft head cloths as well as warm socks.

We felt the more we could give back to the community, the better. We as Lenmed Randfontein don’t have an Oncology unit, but we are in the process of starting a Chemo unit. Then we will have our own patients who we can give back to,” Marietha explained.

Just because they don’t have an Oncology unit, doesn’t mean that they are unaware of what the patients are going through.

“This is our way of giving back to the community and to say that we know what they are going through, so they do not need to worry about things they need; they can be calm and focus on the process.”

According to Marietha, they asked throughout the hospital that people bring beautifully decorated boxes and add cards with a message of encouragement to those going through this difficult time.

Chemo goes on for at least three to four months and in that process some women feel they are losing something of themselves as women when their breast is gone.”

She explained that this is a small gesture by the hospital to say to women battling breast cancer that they are beautiful and the hospital is fighting this battle with them.