EVANSTON HEALTH CENTER TO GIVE FREE TREATMENTS TO WOMEN WITH CANCER

Heartwood Center Expands Program Through Generous Grants, Gifts

EVANSTON, IL
April 15, 2008

Heartwood Center, a holistic health center located at 1599 Maple Street in Evanston, is looking for participants for its 2008 Women and Cancer Grant Program. The program, which provides free healthcare to women diagnosed with cancer, is available to Chicago area women. “Our goal is to treat women who desire services beyond the realm of traditional western medicine, yet cannot afford them,” said Program Director Terri Clemens. Sessions in acupuncture, psychotherapy, massage/bodywork and classes in yoga, t’ai chi and meditation are tailored specifically to each woman’s needs. Participants are encouraged to choose the services they feel would be most beneficial to them.

Founded in 2004, the Women and Cancer Program has been successfully running each year with funding primarily from the State of Illinois. The program began as the brainchild of former State Senator Carol Ronen, herself a cancer survivor. During her cancer treatments, she received acupuncture at Heartwood Center to boost her immune system and mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy. Her positive experience of the benefits of holistic healthcare compelled her to initiate a grant program funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health that would make these services available to everyone, regardless of income. The program has successfully provided more than 450 treatments and classes to women since its inception.

Now in its fifth year, the program has begun to draw more and more community support. In March, Heartwood was notified of a $5,000 award from The Women’s Club of Evanston’s 2007/2008 Giving Focus Grant which supports “innovative programs that positively effect community wellness” for Evanston and the surrounding area. The grant money will be presented during the club’s sixth annual Contributions to the Community Breakfast on May 28, 2008. In addition, several private donations have been given to the program this year. This influx of funding will allow Heartwood to expand its reach, serving more women and providing more treatments.

Clemens expressed the center’s appreciation for the support: “We are thrilled to receive these gifts, the largest we have received to date! Our practitioners and teachers who also give so generously of their time and talents to this important work will be able to help even more women with this financial support.”

Participants are very enthusiastic about the benefits. One former participant describes the program in her post-treatment survey: “Patients recovering from or dealing with active cancer are bombarded with unimaginable physical, emotional, spiritual and financial stress. Having a special program to help women deal with all of the above stressors is a gift that ‘keeps on giving.’ The ‘snowball effect’ of just one person’s positive healing is profound — within the individual, family and society. ”

Without this grant program, these women would not have been able to afford any of these treatments. One grateful participant wrote in her follow-up questionnaire: “This program has been a gift and a blessing! It has allowed me to address some critical areas of emotional and spiritual healing that I would have been reluctant to address due to considerable expenses incurred due to multiple major health issues over the past several years.”