When hope blossoms

The volunteers of CAN-STOP will distribute roses to spread cancer awareness on Rose Day (Sept.22).

Roses are for remembrance... a special way of cherishing someone special and spreading hope and cheer. And, on September 22, the fragrance of a rose will at once take you miles away to distant Canada.

For, it's Rose Day and time to remember 15-year-old Melinda Rose Hathaway and countless others like her elsewhere round the world who suffer from cancer.

"I created a special web page so that I could reach out to other kids suffering like me and, in my own small way, give them and their caregivers hope," says Melinda.

Here, in Chennai, "CAN-STOP" (Cancer Support Therapy to Overcome Pain), a community outreach programme of the Sundaram Medical Foundation Dr. Rangarajan Memorial Hospital, appeals to the public to wear the rose that its volunteers will distribute in hospitals on September 22.

This will not only create awareness of cancer but also spread the message of hope till it reaches those who are in need of help.

CAN-STOP has been actively promoting cancer awareness programmes in the city for the past four years.

The organisation through its work tells people that cancer, if detected early, need not be fatal. Services are free of cost and include - educational, occupational, laughter and music therapies, besides counselling. It also runs a drug and blood bank.

On Rose Day, CAN-STOP volunteers, along with Rotary and Interact Club members, will visit 13 hospitals in the city between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. to distribute roses.

Special kits containing nutritional supplements and toiletries will be given to children and women at the Institute of Child Health, the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Government Hospital for Women and Children. Roses will also be distributed at various commercial centres between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The Institute of Child Health will organise a programme for the public in which children who have survived cancer will participate.

The Guild of Service Auditorium on Casa Major Road is to be the venue.

So, on Rose Day, CAN-STOP hopes that Chennaiites will show that they care by wearing a rose &151; a tiny gesture that will touch millions of suffering people the world over.

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