Old school skills and compassion for cancer care patients

A group of community-minded primary school students are giving up their lunch breaks to help cancer patients at Redcliffe Hospital.

The team of grade six students from St Benedict’s Catholic Primary School at Mango Hill have used their lunchbreaks to craft specially shaped pillows by hand, donating them to patients at Redcliffe Hospital’s Cancer Care Service.

Jessica Kestle is the Acting Nurse Unit Manager at Redcliffe Hospital’s Cancer Care Service and says the pillows mean a lot to patients, not only because they make recovery more comfortable, but because of where they have come from.

“The pillows are given to the patients after they’ve had surgeries to help provide some support to the surgical site. What’s really special about these pillows though is that they come with that little bit of love as well,” Jessica said.

Jessica said patients not only received the hand-sewn pillow, but an individually made cards from the students as well.

“Patients absolutely love to see that people out there are thinking about them. It’s that feeling of having the community wrap around you during a difficult time.”

Jessica said this was the second time Cancer Care had received a donation like this from St Benedict’s students, and patients were very appreciative.

“The feedback that we have been given was that patients thought it was such a beautiful gesture.  It’s really nice that these young people are so involved in the community,” she said.

“I would like to thank the school for thinking about us, and for thinking about our patients. I really commend the young students for giving up their own time, it’s fantastic that they’re so community minded.”

St Benedict’s teacher Natalie Devine said that each pillow took the students about two hours to create, with the group sewing together during lunch breaks on Wednesdays each week.

Natalie said there were 16 pillows donated in this batch, with the team considering expanding the project to other items for cancer patients.

Three students from the Sewing Club accompanied Natalie to Redcliffe Hospital earlier this month to make the donation in person.

“The students just love knowing that their small contribution will brighten up the days of patients who are facing challenges in our community,” Natalie said.