Rotary Club gives mobility to disability

By Adel Fruean 16 November 2018, 12:00AM

The Apia Rotary Club has donated four wheelchairs and four walkers to the Samoa Cancer Society.

Apia Rotary Club member, Christine Hurley, said the donated items will give patients more mobility and enable them to see family and friends. 

“It is a special moment for me to have an opportunity to hand over this equipment to the cancer society which are doing wonderful information campaigns that are leading most recently on breast cancer and right now on prostate cancer.

“I know it will be put to very good use as part of the cancer society’s continuing support for cancer patients in palliative care.

“It gives those patients more mobility and makes it easier for them to see family and friends, as well as to visit the hospital,” she said. 

The wheelchairs will be returned to the Society when they are no longer needed, to enable others living or having a disability to use them. The donation is from Rotary Australia World Community Services.

The CEO of the Samoa Cancer Society, Shelley Burich, said the wheelchairs and walkers are a welcome addition to their small inventory of mobility devices to help cancer patients. 

“In fact, A.R.C. donated these earlier devices late last year for our support services and we are delighted to be a recipient of more.

“We often take the ability to move around freely in our home and out in the community for granted, but for a cancer patient, this freedom can be taken away from them during late stages of the disease. 

“Giving cancer patients access to loaning a wheelchair or walker when it is needed is how we can play a small part towards ensuring these patients are mobile and gain the right to a quality of life,” she said. 

Shelley also stated that this year the Society assisted four cancer patients with the loaning of wheelchairs at home and with this new addition, it will be able to extend its assistance to more patients in need.

By Adel Fruean 16 November 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>