“There was just so much. Everything was like this big banquet,” cancer survivor Margaret Hoeft recalls about Sunstone Cancer Support Centers. “A big banquet of love an
d hope.”
But this banquet, an organization dedicated to giving support, therapy and resources to those diagnosed with cancer, is closing its doors on Dec. 31.
Sunstone has had resource centers at four hospitals in Tucson and a location in Yuma, Ariz., and offers a variety of services to cancer survivors at little or no cost, with sliding-scale fees and a no-survivor-turned-away policy.
These services, to name a few, have included touch therapy, gentle yoga classes, acupuncture, a wig wash and exchange program, breast prostheses, and libraries brimming with books, pamphlets and resources.
The decision to close Sunstone was made by the board of directors on Nov. 19, and Sunstone’s volunteers and employees were told the news on Nov. 20, said Dawn Rataczak, resource center program assistant for Sunstone.
“There are wonderful programs and services that won’t be happening to the full capacity [anymore],” Rataczak said. “No one else quite does what we do.”
The decision, like so many others in the current economic climate, was due to lack of funding. Sunstone is a non profit organization operating largely on donations, and these resources have all but been exhausted.
“I wish the board would have talked about it a few months earlier,” said Hoeft, who began to volunteer with the center after she finished her chemotherapy treatments. “Maybe there could have been a groundswell of support.”
Unfortunately, that support didn’t come in time and the organization that has been an oasis for so many will soon be gone.
How this redistribution will work, and what the overall future holds, is unclear. The redistribution of Sunstone’s many assets is currently being worked out.
According to Rataczak, there remains a group of dedicated and well-qualified volunteers who would love to stay on and help in any way possible, but many of the decisions are in the hands of the hospitals that have been housing Sunstone.
There is no longer enough money to fund the touch therapies and massage services, but the wigs, the information resources and the dedication of those involved remain.
So perhaps despite the loss felt by so many involved with Sunstone, there might still be a future for the mission of an organization that has made hope its motto.
