Who You Help

Cancer patients impacted by the pandemic

A few of the harrowing situations our social worker and staff members have encountered during this time are below.

• Many hours were spent on multiple grant applications for a breast cancer patient who needs lodging for recuperation from surgery and following radiation; she has no permanent local address. She finally received a $1,200 grant to help, but it’s just a small drop in the bucket as she will be out of work for 90 days. The patient is absolutely panicked and has surgery in a few days; she calls often because she doesn’t know what to do.
• One patient was able to obtain an AirBnB with patient support funds for two weeks until her Medicaid became active. This patient lives multiple hours away and has a supportive family, but the discovery of advanced cancer has made time very short to fundraise. Without more funding, she has no options for housing moving forward.
• One patient was ready to cancel and forego all treatment until our social worker discovered the patient had Medicaid and could utilize her Logisticare benefit for lodging. She had exhausted all funds and had no family or friends who could financially help her. She cried on the phone when she discovered she did not have to completely forego her cancer treatment.
• A patient needed to have re-irradiation to their head and neck area and didn’t have resources to stay locally due to financial constraints and limited help from family. The patient lives four hours away and needed to stay in Charleston for over six weeks for radiation treatment. The patient was unable to find lodging and the radiation oncologist nearest the patient was not comfortable treating the patient with the second round of radiation, therefore the patient simply did not receive the post-op radiation that was recommended.
• Multiple patients (20 to 25) are having issues with not being able to stay in Charleston due to the financial hardship it would cause them to travel here and purchase a hotel room, food, etc. for six to seven weeks of treatment. All of these patients are instead being treated closer to home, even though the expertise and treatment options are nowhere near the caliber they would receive at Hollings.

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