Cancer patients and their families have a new resource in the state: the Maine Cancer Resource Connection. The statewide hotline provides extra support to anyone affected by cancer, particularly those in rural areas. The hotline helps with issues that range from financial and transportation, to just needing someone to talk to.
Kristene Mills ignored the lump in her breast at first. But after several months, she decided to get it checked. It was February of last year. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 aggressive breast cancer. "This last year I've had two surgeries, I've had had six chemo sessions, I had a left breast mastectomy, I've had 33 radiation sessions. And I'm done right now."
Mills' hair is dark and short. But it used to fall past her waist. "I feel great physically. Mentally, I'm not all that good. Because my pride was my hair and my breasts and my fingernails. And with cancer, it takes all three of those things away."
Mills is trying to save for a breast prosthesis. She also has to pay household bills that piled up during her treatment. Her husband has a job, but Mills was unable to work during her treatment, and the couple is feeling the strain of being reduced from two incomes down to one.
The stress of it all can feel overwhelming at times, she says. It was one of those times that she called the Maine Cancer Resource Connection.
"My name is Karen Page. I am a social worker." Page is the coordinator for the hotline, which is a collaboration between the Cancer Community Center in South Portland, the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center in Ellsworth, and the Dempsey Center in Lewiston, where Page is based.
A one-year grant that funds the hotline runs out this July, but the resource centers are reapplying - and with good reason, because the hotline only started gaining traction in the beginning of this year. "Our program is really focused on the most rural parts of the state," Page says.
While larger treatment centers in the state typically have social workers and navigators to connect cancer patients and caregivers to different resources, the availability of this kind of help in more rural areas is mixed.
Page says the calls she gets cover a wide range of needs. "Lots of questions about transportation. How do I get to my appointment? Some people are traveling really far distances for their appointments, unfortunately, in this state. So lots of questions about that. Questions about, 'My doctor said there's financial assistance for my diagnosis- how do I find out about that?' "
Help with transportation is why Amy Haney called. Her 21-year-old daughter was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a few months ago. They live in Houlton, and her daughter needs to travel to an oncologist in Portland about every six weeks.
Haney says between her income as a substitute teacher and her husband's variable income from construction, they scrape together the $200 it takes to make each trip.
"You have to pay for accommodations - hotels, motels, food, everything. So, the first three appointments, we just basically - I sold everything I could to come up with the cash to take her."
After Haney called the Maine Cancer Resource Connection, Karen Page was able to send gas cards. When Kristene Mills called, Page connected her to organizations that provide financial assistance for her bills. But first, they just talked for awhile. Mills says at the time that's really what she needed.
"Just to be a voice on the other line instead of somebody saying,'I can't help you right now, I can connect you to someone else.' You know, sometimes all we need to hear is, it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK."
Sometimes, Mills says, her worries are about more than the bills.
