HopeSpring offers wide range of services
HOPESPRING Cancer Support Centre offers 30 to 40 different services for people coping with cancer. There is yoga and nutritional coaching, healthy cooking classes, meditation, music therapy, peer support groups and a wig boutique, to name only a few programs.
Last year, HopeSpring gave 300 wigs to people losing their hair due to cancer treatment. Camisoles are also available to women undergoing a mastectomy or who have had a mastectomy recently.
Gerard Seguin, HopeSpring’s executive director, says all of the programs, services and resources, for which there is no charge, have a significant impact on the users.
He frequently witnesses the positive effect that a wig has on a person with cancer. Some people opt for a henna “crown” applied freehand by an artist instead of a wig.
They’re smiling as they head out the door with their new look. “The transformation is remarkable,” Seguin says.
“Most people when they come to us are in a state of shock,” he says. “We help them work through the initial shock.”
One man came to HopeSpring recently after his wife had just discovered she had cancer. “He said ‘I can’t go home. I don’t know what to say to her,’ ” Seguin says. The man was helped by a cancer care coach. “You don’t need a referral or an appointment. You can walk in and sit down and talk to cancer care coaches,” he says.
They’re understanding and offer resources. They describe what to expect and provide words that will help open a conversation.
In 2012, HopeSpring moved from its space in a Waterloo home to a larger location in the Conrad Medical Centre at 16 Andrew St. in Kitchener. The centre also has satellite locations in Cambridge, Guelph and Mount Forest.
HopeSpring, a not-for-profit organization, does not receive government funding and depends on organizations and individuals such as Mario and Irene DeLisi for support.
Seguin described how other individuals, such as a young woman in her 20s, contribute to the centre. The woman, a trained singer with a degree in music therapy, is a breast cancer survivor who used the water yoga program offered by HopeSpring.
Last year, she and her siblings gave musical concerts to aid HopeSpring. “She came today to give me the cheque,” he says.
With 500 new visitors to programs in 2012, it’s clear that HopeSpring’s services are needed, Seguin says.
The latest statistics show that two in five Canadians will get some form of cancer in their lifetime, he says.
Among Waterloo-Wellington residents, there are about 3,800 new cancer diagnoses in a year.