Cancer library provides free knowledge resources for newly diagnosed patients
Gilda’s Club Desert Cities in Cathedral City, California is home to the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Research Library, one of six such libraries in the state. Alice and Harvey Diamond started the foundation after their daughter Jennifer died of appendiceal carcinoma at the age of 30. They came up with the idea for the library when they were trying to learn more about their daughter’s rare form of cancer.
The Executive Director of Gilda’s Club said that all of the library’s materials are screened for readability and to ensure they come from authoritative sources. The library is available to patients and their families free of charge, with over 300 titles, reference materials and two computers that contain a database of the library’s catalog and sources.
The information contained within the library has been very useful for many cancer patients. Staff and volunteers help the patients settle down and focus on their research so that they can take the information back to their doctors and ask the right questions. Karen Pendleton was an appendiceal cancer patient who used the library in its first year back in 2004. She credits the research she did with saving her life.
For the full story, go to The Desert Sun.
