A housekeeping service
scrubs cancer patients’ worries away, cleaning their homes for free.
After surgery, 12 rounds of chemotherapy and 30 radiation sessions, Lisa Ford found she no longer had the energy or inclination to worry about scrubbing her bathtub.
“I felt like every cell in my body was under attack,” said Ford, a 50-year-old Oviedo resident diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. “My focus was on surviving the biggest battle of my life.”
So two months ago, when a local company contacted her with an offer to clean her home for free, she didn’t hesitate long.
Cleaning for a Reason, a nationwide nonprofit, put her in touch with Two Maids & A Mop of Oviedo, a for-profit franchise that donates housecleaning services to women fighting cancer.
“It was a team of two women, and they scrubbed my house from top to bottom for four hours,” Ford said. “I was just floored. They made my house sparkle like I had not seen it sparkle in many years.”
Melody Montgomery, who opened the Seminole-Volusia franchise five weeks ago, donated the cost of the cleaning from her own pocket — paying her staff as she would for any other job. The charitable work is a big reason she signed on with the franchise, she said.
Montgomery lost her sisterin-law to cancer two years ago.
“She fought three times, but after her third cancer, she didn’t make it,” Montgomery said. “I just always felt like, ‘What can I do to make anything about this better for you? I know how much this part of your life sucks, and if I could take away one little piece of the burden — even if it’s only a Lego block out of a whole building — I would do it.’ ”
Cleaning for a Reason, started by a Texas woman, recruits housekeeping services across the country — 1,200 of them at last count — to help supply the labor. Since 2006, its providers have volunteered their time to clean for more than 30,200 women, services valued at nearly $10 million.
Two Maids & A Mop of Orlando, which covers Orange County, also participates.
“I do it because I believe in the cause,” said franchise owner Anthony Truong, now in his third year with the business. “I’ve met some of these patients, and they’re not in good shape. I just can’t imagine what it’s like not to be able to fend for yourself because you have this disease, this condition you never asked for.”
Montgomery, who worked with cancer patients for eight years in her previous job running imaging centers, worries that not enough people know about the free service. Though she can only accept two patients at a time herself — each gets a thorough monthly cleaning for two months — she still wants to spread the word.
“I know I never heard of it until I signed on with the franchise, and I had spent years in all these oncology centers,” she said. “Now I’m sending out brochures to doctors’ offices.”
In Ford’s case, her 24-year-old daughter, Malia Campbell, discovered the service while researching online.
“I knew there are companies out there that help people with
cancer, so I started looking around,” said Campbell, a nursing student who moved from Hawaii to help care for her mother. “At the time, my mom didn’t have any eyebrows, and I was looking for places that would do micro blading for her. But then something popped up about free cleaning.”
Campbell, who is working and going to school while caring for her mother, signed her up.
Both say the results brightened Ford’s spirits — though Ford does confess to trying to tidy up before the maids arrived, despite Montgomery’s instructions not to.
“We know this can be difficult for some people,” Montgomery said. “Most of them would never ask their neighbor, ‘Hey, will you come and clean my bathroom?’ So we have to tell them, ‘Don’t worry. Don’t put stuff away. Don’t do anything except open the door.’ The last thing we want is for this to be one more burden.”
For more information or to apply, go to cleaningforareason.org. Continued from Page B1