Cancer patients currently undergoing treatment—or who’ve already been through it—are invited to join Marian Medical Center and Monarch Dunes Golf Club’s Swing Thru Cancer support program.
The program is open to caregivers, family members of patients, and people dealing with cancer or life after cancer. It aims to get them involved in outdoor activities and encourage them to continue strengthening their bodies.
Monarch Dunes Superintendent Tom Elliott and his wife, Liz, wanted to offer a way to help cancer sufferers by providing an alternative way to help them escape from thinking about their disease and focus on something more positive.
“I think it’s a great way for people dealing with the disease to get involved in an outdoor activity,” Tom said.
The program offers golf lessons at no cost to cancer patients and survivors. Monarch Dunes Golf Club provides all the necessary equipment to teach and train patients. Lessons are every third Wednesday of the month from 1 to 2 p.m., and are taught by Jensen Lardizabal, head golf professional at Monarch Dunes, with help from experienced instructor Bob True.
Lardizabal said his donated time is well worth the cause since his father, who taught him how to golf, died of lung cancer in 2000.
Swing Thru Cancer group facilitator Jennifer Davis told the Sun that the program has done wonders for local cancer patients.
“[It] allows the patients to connect with other people in the community who share in the same experience with cancer and to help them have some camaraderie with others,” she said.
For more information, or to make a required reservation, contact Marian’s Cancer Center at 739-3780.
Intern Gabby Hendriksen compiled this week’s Community Corner. Contact her at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 5, 2009.