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Battling cancer

Combined effort helps uplift living

Sri Lanka Cancer Society Homes, which provide a transit home for outdoor patients of the Cancer Hospital, Maharagama, are in dire need of donor support. These Homes offer free of charge accommodation, food and nursing care for patients regularly attending chemotherapy, radio therapy and Clinic sessions at the Cancer Hospital.


Female patients at lunch. Pictures by Sudath Nishantha

These facilities are offered in very pleasant surroundings which includes a small landscaped garden. Patients from distant areas such as Anuradhapura or Kurunegala who cannot make the daily journey to the hospital are referred to the Homes by the Consultant of the Cancer Hospital. Anticipated operational and maintenance expenditure, inclusive of expenses of staff, for the year 2009/2010, is estimated at a hefty Rs. 15 million.

"The government gives us an annual grant of Rs. six hundred thousand," Cancer Society Homes' Secretary U. A. D. C. Samarathunga, told the Daily News. But a full day's meal rates for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner for 85 patients, which is the maximum capacity of patient occupancy at the Homes, run to Rs.13,000.00. Essential food items of rice, dhal, coconuts, fish, chicken, eggs, milk powder, sugar and the like for 80 patients each month cost about Rs.253,540.00. Unlike the hospice where terminally ill patients are warded, Cancer Homes provide a few days or even as long as one month or longer stay to patients receiving regular dosages of therapy at the Cancer Hospital.

Point of no cure

"Cancer patients in Sri Lanka do not like to be identified," Chairman, Cancer Homes Committee of the Sri Lanka Cancer Society Sisira Sam Weeratunga, commented. He had come from America where for ten years he had nursed his first wife diagnosed with cancer. She had had heart surgery and cancer had been neglected until it had spread to the point of no cure. She had been predicted five years of survival but lived on for ten years. "Having cancer is nothing to be ashamed of," said Weeratunga, drawing attention to instances in which patients sufficiently recovered from cancer had nowhere to go when discharged from the Homes as their family members did not come to collect them. "In America, people who become bare headed from therapy go about their daily lives without even wearing a wig."

"If you fight the disease, without giving up, you might get over cancer," Jayanethi Rambukpotha, Member of the Homes Committee and Consultant Chartered Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, also from America, told us.


From left to right: Secretary, Cancer Society Homes U. A. D. C. Samarathunga, Member, Homes Committee Jayanethi Rambukpotha and Chairman, Cancer Homes Committee Sisira Sam Weeratunga.

He cited a case where a woman was identified as having widely spread cancer and deemed hopeless. Now, twenty five years later, her doctor has allowed her to come to the clinic only if she had a problem. The warm and hospitable atmosphere at the Home encourages recovery. "Some cancer patients spend excessively for private treatment but finally come to the hospital and the Homes," Weeratunga said.

There are also patients who are reluctant to use toilets in a hospital, being squeamish about cleanliness which is well maintained at the Homes.

The Cancer Homes, the result of a committee of volunteers, run three male wards and two female wards and 12 individual rooms with TV and an attached bathroom. The current head count of the male wards is 45 and female wards, 28.

There are 85 beds and no patients are delegated to the floor, as in crowded hospital wards.

The rooms are given to patients who cannot tend to themselves, Matron of Homes, Mrs. K.D. Somadasa, told us. Therefore, each room has a stand by bed for a live in attendant. One room is an air-conditioned unit consisting of a bedroom, a sitting area and an attached bath. Those who wish to avail themselves of this unit, must pay a deposit of Rs.5,000 to cover any possible breakage of the unit property.

Donors giving alms, or in other words, providing meals for the inmates of the Homes must pay and book the dates of the 'dana' in advance. Once the payment is made, the able housekeeper of the Homes, Miss K.D. Premawathi, have the meals prepared in the Homes kitchen. "If donors want 'bana' (sermon), Buddhist clergy is invited," she said. The inmates either gather around the priest or listen to bana from their beds through the piped address system of the Homes.

Female patients

The average patient at the Homes is middle-aged. Males with cancer are mostly victims of smoking and betel chewing, Weeratunga said. Female patients are mostly with breast cancer. Some had skin cancer after working in fields with exposure to the sun. Of the 1,028 patients admitted to the Homes in 2007/2008, the break up of the nature of cancer was as follows: oral cavity (298), breast (189), gastro intestinal system (154), female reproductive system (105), respiratory system (72), thyroid (52), brain (32), male genito urinary tract (32), non Hodgkinlymphoma (10) and other types (84).

A typical day at the Homes begins with patients going to the hospital for therapy during the morning time slots allotted to each. Those who are too feeble to walk are taken there in a three-wheeler, a gift from a donor. When they come back, they can have their lunch and engage in leisure pursuits such as reading books in the small library collection or play carrom or watch TV.

One immediate need of the Homes, as spelt out by Rambukpotha is repairing the uneven road to the entrance as patients experience discomfiture from the bumpy ride. Another need is to repair the leaking sump of the water tank.

Booking of meals for the Homes can be made at Sri Lankan Cancer Society Head Office at Buller's Lane on Telephone 2581700 and 2585879 or Cancer Homes Office at No.65, Hospital Road, Maharagama on Telephone 2850251. Payments can be made in cash or by cheque drawn in favour of THE SRI LANKA CANCER SOCIETY.

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