At 7:am on February 6th the buses started arriving from as far away as Ixtlan del Rio, Santiago, and Tepic. Even here in the community of La Penita (our little “trailer park”), the international volunteers were up and waiting. One of the park’s main charitable activities is hosting the annual Cancer de Mama Clinic and today we’re expecting about 400 women.
The women volunteers will be providing love, friendship, understanding, and professional fittings of a free prostheses, bra’s and clothing to those who are in need after a mastectomy. The clubhouse here at the park was transformed into a large number of “fitting rooms” that were pleasantly decorated to make everyone feel more comfortable, respected, and safe as they meet with their volunteer professional. In addition, Cancer de Mama has a limited number of wigs for those women that lost their hair through chemo therapy. Free wigs were individually styled for each lady so that they will feel more comfortable through that period when they’ve lost their hair. Because the ladies have traveled so long on the bus and it’s a long day here as well, Cancer de Mama provides beverages and meals to all that have come (husband and kids as well). One thing that was evident throughout the day were the tears, hugs, the hope, and the real friendships from the survivors and the volunteers…it was a great weekend. Louise helped each day at the “Free Store”.
There they had available just about any type of clothing that they might want or need. My job was to transport the ladies from one location to another on a specially designed trailer that was attached to an ATV…(they had to do a lot of trusting in their driver).