When someone hears the word ‘cancer,’ it can feel like the world stops moving, but help may not be as far away as you think.
The American Cancer Society helps patients in multiple ways right here in the Big Country.
“We want to end cancer as we know it for everyone,” the ACS Executive Director for West Texas and New Mexico, Amy Carnes, said.
Carnes understands that a cancer diagnosis can be scary, shocking and often leave people with many questions.
ACS is here to help answer them.
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“If you or a loved one has just been diagnosed with cancer, the first thing I would do is download our ACS Cares app,” Carnes said.
The app guides a user through questions to help better serve the patient, and offers resources like nutrition blogs.
“If you’re not an app person, you can always go on cancer.org, find the exact same things, by chatting and then our 800 number, which is our national cancer information center,” Carnes said. “It is available 24/7, 365. Any language and it’s the same thing. You can talk to a live person who can get you connected.”
The hotline number Carnes referenced is 1 (800) 227-2345.
Having access to transportation is the number one barrier people face in getting cancer treatment.
That’s why ACS created the Road to Recovery program.
“It’s just truly giving somebody a ride to and from treatment could save their life in, unfortunately, COVID kind of took that program away from us, but we are getting them started back in different markets and, if we can get a handful of really strong volunteers, I could see that happening in Abilene again,” Carnes said.
If you’d like to volunteer with ACS or if you want to learn more about local resources, you can find more information on the Sinclair Cares website or the American Cancer Society.
