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It’s a busy Tuesday in the Beaufort Memorial Chemotherapy and Infusion Services center as the staff prepares for the dozen or more patients who will receive treatment in the 14-chair outpatient facility on the hospital’s main campus.

As nurses hang bags of fluids containing potent, cancer-fighting drugs, insert IVs to deliver the medications and monitor vital signs, hospital volunteer Geri Connors provides another kind of care for patients: comfort and companionship.

The Massachusetts native spent years volunteering at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts, before moving to Beaufort 13 years ago. The former executive recruiter and business manager volunteers twice a week in the infusion center.

“Our efforts are to make the patients as comfortable as possible,” Geri says. “We offer warm blankets, pillows, hot and cold drinks, and snacks.”

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Providing ‘A Sense of Normalcy’

A medical professional smiles and hands a volunteer a blood sample to deliver to the lab

Geri is among five volunteers — she recruited most of them from her Beaufort-area neighborhood — who rotate through the center Monday through Friday to ensure that both staff and patients have extra support every day.

From organizing donations and engaging in conversations to sanitizing treatment stations and distributing snacks, the volunteers are a welcome addition to the busy team.

“Having volunteers who can contribute a sense of normalcy in an otherwise isolating and scary time is a gift to our patients,” according to Oncology Social Worker Kianna Brown, who is a licensed medical social worker at the center. “They offer something that staff have in limited supply: time. They use that time to connect, engage and simply be a warm presence.”

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Collaboration for Patients

A Beaufort Memorial volunteer cleans a clipboard

Beaufort Memorial Patient Advocate and Volunteer Services Coordinator Anna Makar worked with the center’s director, Mark Hennigan, and Brown to develop the program.

“We had volunteers who expressed an interest in working in the infusion center, so we got together to create a job description and orientation,” Makar says.

Currently, the volunteer team includes Geri, Jim Egan, Eileen McKenna, Frances McCarthy, Maureen Kutys and Dawn Novick. Geri says she has other friends who also would like to help.

“Sometimes a smile and comforting hand is all it takes to make someone feel more relaxed,” she says. “These nurses are so dedicated to assuring the safety and well-being of their patients, and it just makes sense to have someone volunteering to do the ancillary tasks to assist.”

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A Beaufort Memorial volunteer speaks with a patient receiving an infusion treatment

Beaufort Memorial Chemotherapy and Infusion Services, located at 989 Ribaut Road, Suite 120, in Beaufort, is part of the Beaufort Memorial Keyserling Cancer Center, an affiliate of the Medical University of South Carolina. The hospital’s second infusion center is located in the Beaufort Memorial New River Cancer Center in Okatie.

Volunteers at Beaufort Memorial contribute their time and skills in numerous ways to improve the experience of patients and their families. Get all the details about how to volunteer, including the volunteer application you’ll need to get started.