Isabel, Fuensanta, Patricia and Lucía, the four volunteers from the Association Against Cancer Since September, volunteers from the Association Against Cancer in Barcelona have been with us at the CSI.
Today, December 5, we celebrate Volunteer Day. We want to remember that at the beginning of July we signed the agreement with the Association Against Cancer in Barcelona so that its volunteers can once again support and accompany people with cancer and their relatives, a task they have been doing for a few weeks at the Day Hospital and different Units of the Hospital de Sant Joan Despí and the Palliative Care Unit of the Hospital Sociosanitari de l'Hospitalet.
In addition, a pilot is being carried out to provide voluntary accompaniments at homes and telephone assistance is also being provided. The step that we want to take in the future is that volunteers can participate in primary care and the residences that make up the Integral Health Consortium.
Raquel Cubero, Volunteer Coordinator at the CSI, says that for her "it is a great honor to have the volunteers who selflessly contribute to the emotional well-being of people who are going through the oncological process. Therefore, for me it is very important to celebrate Volunteer Day which recognizes their important work".
Given that volunteers are the protagonists, we wanted to interview four of them and this is what they told us:
Isabel Espiau, volunteer at the HSJD: “I do volunteering because I think it is relevant that those who have more time can share it".
Fuensanta Fernández, volunteer at the HSJD: “Above all, we provide company, both to the patient and to the relatives. We listen to themyes, this is a task that we believe is important".
Patricia Rivera, Volunteer at the MSM: "I started my experience in the CSI in November, previously formed by the Association Against Cancer, although I have been a volunteer since Covid-19, when I was in associations to accompany grief and death I wanted to dedicate myself to accompany at the end of life and, unfortunately, cancer is like an epidemic. I chose to accompany palliatives, to follow my evolution as a volunteer".
Lucia Diaz, MSM volunteer: "I come from Tenerife and there I collaborated with the Asociación Contra el Cáncer. once here, I knew I wanted to collaborate in the palliative care unit because I had a personal experience in which my husband died and I did not receive any accompaniment in the hospital. It was clear that I wanted to provide that support to whoever might need it."
