Nurse with cancer grateful for donations
A nurse suffering from cancer said yesterday she “appreciated every penny” after the public rallied around and donated $24,000 to help pay for her treatment overseas.
Eloise Bell, 73, is still in Boston, where she has been since September 30, for treatment at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Ms Bell said her initial diagnosis of a bone cancer that could be removed from her femur was stage 4 cancer, which has spread into her pelvis.
She added: “I was told they had good news and bad news — the good news being that I don’t need to have a hip replacement.”
After getting titanium rods in her leg, Ms Bell will probably have to get radiation and chemotherapy to fight the cancer.
But Ms Bell said: “I’m still feeling great.”
She added she was “hobbling without crutches” and would meet her cancer specialist later this week.
Ms Bell said: “I’m still very positive and still very optimistic — I have not changed. I’ll be here until I finish my treatment.”
Wellwishers flocked to help last month after she discovered that her staff insurance from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where she has worked for decades, would not cover treatment overseas.
Ms Bell now has private insurance, and said the donations would help pay the 25 per cent of her treatment that her new plan would not cover.