You here from facebook.com?

Hi and welcome and  I bet you are looking for some info on the Jan Curran Fan Club.

The club began about 5 years ago from an idea of my own that was then adopted by my friends in the Palm Springs area.

It was simple. I was in chemotherapy at the time and would take my own magazines to the cancer center for other patients to read, also put some in the lobby for waiting family and friends to enjoy. People began to anticipate that weekly delivery, so I asked a few friends to do the same.. from that grew this nationwide ( and also in Germany and England) fan club that was doing just what  I was doing.

You just save your weekly and monthly magazines and then deliver them to a cancer treatment center or hospital to help patients and their families pass the time.

The Palm Springs charter group used to meet for lunch once a month and everyone brought their magazines which then were loaded in to vans or station wagons and delivered to every hospital and treatment center in the greater Palm Springs area.  The lunches were great fun, and the final one before I moved from PS to Ventura was televised on the local cable station.

You don't have to have a van load of magazines to do this. Even if you only have three or four magazines those would be welcome by any patient sitting in some exam room with nothing to read, or another patient going through hours of chemo or another waiting to do radiation.

Now, if you do have 25 or 50 or more magazines each month, spread them around. Go to your local hospital and then to a nursing home or children's' treatment center of any sort. Parents need something to read, too.

The cancer center in Rancho Mirage, CA had a small library in the infusion room, so I began also taking some books there. Not boxes full, but a book or two now and then and my son Lee gave me some of his books out in paperback and I donated those, as well. The books were very welcome!

Okay, see how it works?  I no longer have membership cards or the booklet listing each chapter of the fan club. Oh, I've got them, but they are all in storage with my move to this senior living facility.. so just tell yourself you are a member and start doing this magazine bit. 

Now that my daughter Karen is also a cancer patient, my family will be thanking you even more.

The good news on Karen is that the genetic testing showed she did NOT have the genetic trait for ovarian cancer and breast cancer. She does have breast cancer and will be having more surgery in early FEB and most likely radiation treatment but is no longer also faced with the possibility of also having her ovaries removed.

If you just joined the Jan Curran Fan Club -- many, many thanks, and a special thanks to fan club member, and my cousin, Mike Barer in the Seattle area for deciding to put the fan club on facebook.com.  I'd never have been savvy enough to do that myself --- kudos to Mike.

Now, go tell your friends to start saving their magazines and join this club with no dues, no set meetings, just the goal of putting a smile on the face of a cancer patient or member of their family.

~Jan

Comments

[Mike Barer]

I would say the response to the facebook chapter is phenomonal. What a tribute.

[Molly on Whidbey]

Always fun to read the blog and catch up on things that don't sound the same in an email. Why is that,oh writer friend?
Moll