Good things can come from too much Derby Eve partying. Case in point: the Mint Jubilee Resource Center. Funded with proceeds donated to the James Graham Brown Cancer Center from the Mint Jubilee Gala (one of the biggest parties on the night before the big race), the facility has been enhancing the lives of cancer patients and caregivers for more than 10 years and has become an integral part of the Brown mission to treat “the whole patient.”
Fitting cancer patients with wisdom and wigs at the Mint Jubilee Resource Center. |
The resource center, located on the first floor of the cancer center at 529 S. Jackson St., now has a new look after a $350,000 facelift. The result is a warm, inviting space that doesn’t feel the least bit clinical. “We wanted the patients and their families to feel welcome here,” says oncology information specialist Barbara Steele. To achieve this healing environment the center didn’t consult interior designers — it tapped a committee of patients to recomm/files/storyimages/color schemes and design elements. The center has also added more rooms, which means more classes — art therapy, cooking (chemotherapy can affect taste) and Qigong, to name a few— along with educational materials and counseling. It provides wigs and hats for patients and can teach them or their caregivers the art of scarf-tying.
“Even if patients just want to stop in for a cup of coffee, there is always a pot brewing,” says Steele. The open-door policy extends beyond the center’s confines, as most services are available to patients from other
hospitals.
This year’s Mint Jubilee Gala again will benefit the Brown Cancer Center, as well as Gilda’s Club Louisville, another support facility for cancer patients and their friends and
families.
