After nearly 20 years of providing help for cancer victims and their families in the Quad Cities, Gilda's Club is expanding, and beginning to offer its services in Clinton.
Program Manager, Anita Shaft, says Gilda's Club has organized a monthly support group in Clinton (at Zion Lutheran Church), and each week she meets with cancer patients and their families at Mercy Medical Center to tell them about her agency's services.
"When you're not feeling well, making the trip to the Quad Cities for support or education - it may be a barrier and we don't want there to be a barrier. So we're trying to bring services to them so that it's a little more accessible to meet their needs."
The agency also has started offering educational programs in Clinton - on breast cancer last month, and this month, on how to manage treatment and side effects.
According to the Iowa Cancer Registry, Clinton County has a higher than average rate of cancer as compared with the rest of the U.S., and a higher than average incidence of several kinds of cancer than the rest of Iowa - including breast, cervical, colorectal, melanoma, and lung cancer.
In 2018, Gilda's Club will celebrate its 20th anniversary in the Quad Cities.
