Meet Cynthia, an oncology dietician at Virginia Hospital Center’s Cancer Resource Center. Project Knitwell volunteers taught Cynthia to knit a few years ago at a class we sponsored for hospital staff.
We offer knitting to hospital staff to provide them with a way to cope with stress, and because often they end up recommending it to patients and caregivers.
Knitting has become Cynthia’s “go to” activity when she needs to decompress, and she recently shared the story of how she turned immediately to knitting when a tree fell on her house during a storm. When family members entered the house to start the clean up effort, one of them found Cynthia sitting and knitting and asked her how she could sit there knitting when there was a huge mess to be dealt with. Cynthia responded that she needed a few minutes to knit and breathe and collect her thoughts and then she’d be ready to tackle the job. And she was!
When time allows, Cynthia drops by our group at Virginia Hospital Center focused on those affected by cancer to take a break and encourage other knitters. She has recommended knitting to patients, and helped connect Project Knitwell with the Outpatient Infusion Center at the hospital where we have knit with patients receiving chemo and their families.
