Link to Article www.kansascity.com/317/story/1493362.html

By SU BACON
Special to The Star

When your world becomes a hospital room, a gift basket can be a lifeline.

“It was a small thing but it meant so much to me,” said Jan Velander, mother of a 27-year-old Blue Springs woman who died of colon cancer in 2007.

For the last three weeks of her daughter’s life, Velander said she never left her bedside at North Kansas City Hospital. During that time, a staff member gave Velander a gift basket filled with snacks and throughout the hospital stay, the basket was “magically refilled.”

Velander doesn’t know who was responsible for the steady supply of chips, cookies, bottled water, candy and other goodies that kept appearing in the basket but she is grateful for the kindness.

In memory of her daughter, Jennifer Ireland, Velander established a foundation to help others who have a diagnosis of cancer in their families. On the fifth floor of North Kansas City Hospital in the Northland Cancer Center, families are given gift baskets from the foundation.

“Like a kid at Christmas” is how Christi Collins, 41, Kansas City, North, described her husband’s reaction to the basket. Michael Collins, a Kansas City firefighter, receives chemotherapy treatments for four to five days every three weeks at the hospital.

Last week, the Collinses were presented the basket from Monika Totoraitis, a clinical oncology/hematology pharmacy specialist at the hospital and a member of the Jennifer Ireland Foundation.

Michael Collins, 40, eagerly removed the basket contents: a granola bar, mints, cookies, microwave popcorn, gum and other edibles as well as hand sanitizers, bottled water and a pen and notepad.

“It’s nice to have something to snack on,” he said. “It makes it more like home.”

Patients are reluctant to leave their rooms to get similar goodies at the hospital gift shop, cafeteria or vending machines because their immune systems have been weakened by cancer and by treatments. Family members don’t want to venture out for fear the patient may need them or the doctor may make a visit while they’re gone.

The foundation began giving the baskets this spring and so far, about 30 have been delivered at the hospital. The foundation maintains a stock of 15 to 20 baskets on the fifth floor.

“The baskets can be given by a nurse, housekeeper, chaplain — anyone who sees a family in need,” Totoraitis said.

The baskets are the newest form of assistance for families. When the foundation was established in April of 2007, its goal was to provide financial support directly to patients and their families. Since April of 2007, some 25 families nationwide have received grants of $500 to $1,000 to help buy groceries or pay medical expenses, utility bills, rent, mortgage and child care.

“It lessens the burden on families,” Totoraitis said.

Applications are available on the foundation Web site and are reviewed monthly by the board of directors. Assistance is given based on need and can be awarded quickly if the applicant has completed the required paperwork. There are no income guidelines.

There are no salaries to pay either. The foundation is an all-volunteer nonprofit. Donations and proceeds from fundraisers go directly to helping families of patients with cancer.