NEVER GONNA BREAK MY FAITH

As you remember lost loved ones on Memorial Day, keep in mind Jeff Melton. His widow, Holly, has a challenge for locals, issued in a column in Sunday's News-Leader, and on her blog.

Holly Melton wants to establish an urgent care cancer clinic in the Ozarks -- "an urgent care medical facility that is dedicated to only the special needs of cancer patients." She writes:

When one is battling for his or her life, an urgent care clinic is needed that is specially designed to keep cancer patients free from the airborne illnesses found in a typical urgent or emergent care facility. A cancer patient's immune system is already greatly compromised. A clinic is needed where a cancer patient's wait won't be extended because of an incoming car accident that takes the immediate attention. A clinic is needed where a cancer patient will be touched gently, spoken to softly -- cancer patients are in great pain, not hard of hearing. Often the pain medication and the cancer treatments have left a cancer patient with a low tolerance for noise and light. The tumors and searing pain in their bodies make it absolutely necessary for gentle treatment, softer bedding, swift and expert bed transfers. A cancer patient doesn't want to go through their litany of medications another time. Therefore, there is a need for a registry of medications. There is a desperate need to care for those with cancer, no matter what stage of the disease.

If you have ever witnessed someone who has just received a round of chemotherapy, or a cancer patient who is so weak and in desperate need of a blood transfusion, or a cancer patient whose pain is so intense that the thought alone of moving makes them vomit, then you can see the need exists. Please join me. We can do this.

Stop by her blog, read up, consider joining her challenge. It's a worthy one.