There’s no avoiding it. Cancer is an expensive disease to have. There are the co-payments. There’s the medicine. There’s even the cost of gasoline, food and lodging, in the case of out-of-town patients.
But in a month or two, there’s about to be something else — help with some of the bills.
By then, the June Bug Foundation should be ready to go. The name comes from June Monnard Sauder, called “June Bug” by her family. The money comes from a legacy she left to Emporia’s Central Care Cancer Center, where she was treated for breast cancer for 11 months before her death in 2005. And the idea for the foundation comes from the cancer center employees, who had wanted to be able to lend a hand for some time.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to help people when they’re so overwhelmed with everything else and not able financially to meet their obligations,” said Donna Spain of the cancer center. “Maybe not the big expenses, but it’ll help them pay their electrical bill this month.”
“This is for education, transportation and just overall making people feel comfortable,” said Justin Branine, the center’s department manager.
Transportation can be a big part of that comfort, pointed out Sauder’s daughter, Becky Loosen of Derby.
“One thing that was critical to my mother was that she be able to receive treatment close to her home,” Loosen said. “She lived her whole life in the Lyon and Greenwood county area, so she had a unique support service here. That let her maintain a level of independence she would not have had if she had gone somewhere else.”
The foundation was formally created in January, although the last bits of paperwork are still being cleared away. Every member of the Emporia cancer center, from oncologist Chet Stone to the driver of the center’s van, is part of the foundation’s board of directors.
“Normally, you might have Dr. Stone and one or two ‘well-placed’ people on the board,” said Mickie Cleary-Bright of Tom Krueger’s law office, which helped create the foundation. “This foundation is about this place. And it’s about these people. That’s really unusual.”
“June Bug” was a special patient to those at the cancer center. Stone still has difficulty talking about her without swallowing and blinking for a moment. And maybe that’s just as well — according to Loosen, her mother would have preferred to talk about others rather than herself.
Even so, she left a mark.
“June fought a tough battle and was a fighter to the end,” said radiology nurse Beth Lovette. “She was a wonderful, lovable person.”
Not all the foundation’s help will take the form of money. The workers also hope to get donations of medical equipment such as wheelchairs or walkers that can be given to those who need them. On a larger scale, Stone has plans to buy a house, remodel it and make it a “Ronald McDonald”-style home for those patients who need it. He started to get that underway about a year ago, but family affairs forced him to put it on the shelf for a little bit.
“We’re still looking and talking about the same thing — having something there for patients who don’t want to travel each day,” Stone said.
For now, the foundation’s founders can’t wait to get going. And Loosen can’t wait to see what happens next. She already knows it’s in good hands.
“I think there is a compassion among the people here that is unmatched,” she said.