Each week, her goal is to treat cancer outside examine and diagnostic rooms.
Volunteer Cynthia Kilmark has held the hands of people who have just been diagnosed with cancer, fetched sodas and blankets for patients in treatment, and listened when needed. When treatment is over, she helps celebrate with patients who are now free of the disease.
Kilmark, 68, lives in the Center Grove area and volunteers at Community Hospital South’s radiology oncology center. She spends a few days a week doling out hope and help to the cancer patients at the southside hospital.
Cancer care is more than just chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Kilmark said that the non-medical care she and other volunteers give weekly is important to a cancer patient’s well-being.
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“It’s a way to open your eyes, give back and make a positive difference,” she said. “I don’t do anything medically, but I help.”
She has seen so many diagnoses of late stage cancer that could have been caught and cured if the patient had seen a doctor earlier. She is now an advocate for getting people early diagnoses because of what she has seen in her volunteer work. Cancer is scary, but is not always a death sentence, she said.
“I am an advocate for seeking medical attention as soon as possible and following suggested testing procedures such as mammograms. It does and will make a difference,” she said.
She has seen young people diagnosed who did not have insurance and who thought it would not happen to them.
“So many cancers are treatable in earlier stages,” she said.
Deciding to volunteer
Kilmark has seen the terrible mark cancer can make. Her mother died of lung cancer. Her brother died of bile duct cancer. Two of her sisters have been diagnosed with and beaten cancer. She considers it a miracle that she has yet to be diagnosed with the disease.
So when she retired from teaching first and third grades at Harrison Hill Elementary School in Indianapolis, she wanted to do something. She had just seen her brother, John Tranberg, battle the disease and thought helping others in the same situation would be the best use of her volunteer time, Kilmark said.
“What a way to honor him, but to give back to people facing the same type of illness,” she said.
She began volunteering at the hospital’s radiology center seven years ago. Then she moved over to Community’s cancer care center off County Line Road once it was built.
“We all have an obligation to make the world a better place,” she said. “I still thought I had something left to give.”
Kilmark volunteers in two four-hour shifts weekly. Her job is to do whatever she can to help patients and staff.
Sometimes that means chatting with someone who is alone and going through chemotherapy treatment or getting a drink for a patient. Whatever might help someone, Kilmark does.
“We are there to help them do whatever we can,” she said. “A lot of it is just listening.”
Helping others
As she went through her orientation, Kilmark instantly knew she had made the right decision to volunteer.
“I was welcomed and made to feel like a part of the team from the get-go,” she said.
Nearly weekly, she hears stories that continue to surprise and push her, and some patients have stuck with her for years. She has held the hands of patients who were shaking with fear and who had no one to come to treatment with them.
While coming off the elevator one day, she ran into a young woman who was entering the elevator. The woman was concerned about getting the results of a medical exam. She hopped off the elevator in fear. Kilmark stepped in.
“She did not want to know,” she said.
She spoke with the woman and convinced her that it was better to know what she was facing and compile a battle plan. Kilmark’s words helped the woman face her test results. An older woman who had beaten cancer heard the ordeal the woman was going through and stepped in to help, telling the young woman that her hair had grown back, because she had beaten the disease.
“I told her that once you know something, you can set a game plan,” Kilmark said.
The patients she has met and the staff at the hospital are what keep her going back to volunteer, although she has seen patients lose their battle to the disease.
“It can be heartbreaking, you will shed tears, but you have joys and celebrations too,” she said.
Most of the patients she has seen stay cheery, and their tenacity in battling the disease gives her strength.
“Some of the strongest people I have met had had terrible lives,” she said.
Patients she has not seen in years will approach her in public and give her updates on their treatment. They share photos of their grandchildren and talk about their lives.
“It has touched my life in a way I have never expected,” she said.
Some of the days are hard, but volunteering has given Kilmark a chance to help, and she recommends it to anyone who has the time. She lights candles in church and prays for the patients she encounters and hopes that the little things she does weekly make a difference.
“If you can do it, do it,” she said. “You have to have a gentle heart and compassion; that’s all it takes.”
