Published March 18, 2007

Providing Comfort
Scout Project Reaches Out to Those Struggling With Cancer

By Eileen Dugan
Sooner Catholic

EDMOND — Imagine you are waiting to see your doctor to learn if you have cancer. Or that you already know you have cancer and you are waiting to discuss your treatment options. In either case, you are probably scared. You wonder, “Will I be around this time next year? What is my future? What about my family?” As you sit in the waiting room nervously drumming your fingers on the arms of your chair, you could use a little tender loving care. That’s exactly what you will get if you happen to have Dr. James Reeves at Mercy Health Center as your oncologist.

In Reeves’ waiting room, you will find Comfort Cards — four varieties designed especially for you — with messages from a sage young girl and the Bible that will comfort you and set your mind at rest.

These cards are the creations of seventh-grader Taylor Allen, a student at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School in Edmond. Her grandmother, who used to volunteer in the school cafeteria, has lung cancer. So when Taylor had to write a poem for her English class about someone she cared about, she chose to write about her grandmother, Beverly Carlile. She called her poem “Role Model.”

Role Model

My Grandma’s a big part of me,
She’s wise and brave and strong.
I’d tell you all her qualities,
But that would take too long.
She always has her head held high
With cancer in her lung.
Even though her husband died,
A song that’s never sung.
She never tries to hide,
Through things that she can’t stand.
She has an angel by her side,
They’re walking, hand in hand.
A phrase for Grandma, whether sunny or snowing,
Is “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”

Taylor said that writing this poem helped her cope better with her grandmother’s illness. Perhaps writing poems and making cards for people dealing with cancer or grief could help them cope? She decided to find out.

First, she did some soul searching to come up with how she might make the cards and get them to those who could use them. She is a Girl Scout and had been looking for a service project to fulfill her requirements for the Bronze Award, the highest honor in Junior Girl Scouting.

She had also hoped that she might be able to use her Girl Scout project to help her grandmother. Could she use Comfort Cards for her Girl Scout project and to help her grandmother and other cancer patients at the same time?

It turns out that she could. Taylor talked with her Girl Scout leader, Kim Bowman, explaining the Comfort Card concept. Bowman loved the idea and gave Taylor the go-ahead to use the cards for her project.

Next, the seventh-grader made an appointment to talk with Reeves, her grandmother’s oncologist. A very busy man, he still took the time to listen to Taylor as she explained her idea.

Yes, she could design and make the cards and leave them in his waiting room, he said. If his patients were interested, they could take one. Armed with these affirmations, the spunky 12 year-old headed for her computer. After struggling with words and graphics for several hours, she came up with four Comfort Card designs: one with a poem, one based on a saint and two based on Scripture.

For her first Comfort Card, Taylor wrote a poem, “What Cancer Can’t Do to You,” listing two things that cancer cannot take away from the cancer patient: “The ones that truly love you” and the “prize.”

This prize is ...
… not a trophy,
To put on the shelf.
The prize is truly,
Up to you.
Because with every day,
The prize is new!

“This prize is something different for each person,” Taylor said. “It is something that makes the person get better. Taylor’s second Comfort Card features Saint Peregrine, the patron saint of cancer patients and himself a cancer survivor. In this Comfort Card, Taylor asks God, through the intercession of Saint Peregrine, to “give comfort and strength to all people affected by cancer.”

Her last two Comfort Cards are Scripture-based. The first quotes Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.” The second is from Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Taylor adds, “Even though times may be rough right now, don’t worry, for comfort will be given out soon.” This Bible-based card is to remind those whose relatives have stepped beyond this world into God’s dimension that the Lord will comfort them in their sorrow if they will cast their cares on Him.

Taylor gave her grandmother one of each of the cards, and they helped to lift her spirits. “They offer people with cancer some hope,” Carlile said. So far, none of Reeves’ other cancer patients have given Taylor any feedback on her Comfort Cards. She hopes that the cards have encouraged them.

“If they have helped just one person, they can be considered successful,” she said.

And, yes, she did receive her Girl Scout Bronze Award for this project
.