Fireside Fund donations help keep elderly Sumter cancer patient warm
As the temperatures dropped recently, requests for heating assistance have already increased at the Crisis Relief Ministry of Sumter United Ministries.
Kevin Howell, crisis relief director, said the ministry's season is just beginning - having started on Nov. 1 - but many clients anxiously await the relief provided when they are unable to properly heat their homes with their own resources.
In one case, Howell said, the ministry interviewed a senior citizen from Mayesville who is a cancer patient.
The day the client arrived, she could barely stand and struggled through the process of having her appointment prepared, he said. Her 31-year-old daughter was assisting her through the process.
"It was obvious how very sick she was simply from the frailty of her voice and the pain in her eyes," he said about the client.
Her daughter worked full-time at a factory, Howell said, until she was laid off just three weeks earlier.
"What was once ample income for the household had dwindled to under $1,000 a month," he said.
Recently, he said, their HVAC system stopped working properly, and there was no heat in the house apart from small portable heaters.
"To make matters worse," he said, "the cancer treatment makes the client extremely cold, and staying warm is a vital comfort."
The repair was quoted at $800, but the family simply had no money to fix it, Howell said.
"Though we do not field requests for HVAC replacement or repairs, the generosity of The Item readers to the Fireside Fund allows versatility to do the right thing when it so obviously appears before us," he said.
The client's HVAC system is being evaluated by a small-business partner of the crisis relief ministry, Howell said, and "we are ready to do whatever is necessary to make the client comfortable by ensuring she has heat for the winter ahead."
Your donations make an incredible difference to those enduring a crisis and without adequate heat, he said. "Thanks for giving to the Fireside Fund!"