FIVE district Lions Clubs have joined forced to provide a new chemotherapy chair for Kerang District Health’s oncology department.
The $7000 chair will be used by cancer patients receiving chemotherapy treatment.
The Lions Clubs of Barham/Koondrook, Kerang, Lake Charm/Mystic Park, Murrabit and District and Quambatook joined forces with assistance from the Australian Lions Foundation to provide the department’s sixth chair.
Project chairman, Greg Gin said that the club’s combined for a project marking 100 years of Lions Clubs International.
Members of each club gathered to present the chair.
Dr Gin said that the Kerang club had already provided a chair and Murrabit Lions member Chris Veldman approached him about clubs combining for a zone project.
Mr Veldman’s late wife, Jan, was receiving treatment at the time and commented how uncomfortable some of the older chairs were for patients sitting for four to six hours.
“If we can make their lives a bit easier in their time of need, then our clubs have delivered the Lions motto, We Serve,” he said.
Nurse unit manager, Jeecinta Lightbody said that the health service treated 593 people last year for breast, colorectal, lung, respiratory, ovarian, blood and prostate cancers.
Already this year, 658 patients have been treated, the highest admissions of any department at the hospital.
