July 6, 2011 | Simple things can mean a lot. As a husband who watched his wife experience breast cancer, Harold Zook knows this first hand.

That’s why, when he heard about the need for breast cancer pillows for patients at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), he stepped up to help.

“I mentioned to Mr. Zook about the need for special pillows for our breast cancer patients to help relieve pressure following surgery. He immediately offered to pay for pillows to be made and distributed to our patients,” said Claudia Barone, Ed. D., R.N., dean of the UAMS College of Nursing. In addition to her duties as dean, Barone also works as an RN II each Friday night in the UAMS Post Anesthesia Care Unit.

A connection was made with Mary Philips, founder of Care Cap Connections, an organization of volunteers who sew and donate caps for cancer patients at various locations, including the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Philips and several volunteer seamstresses visit the UAMS Family Home each month for a sewing day. After being told about the need for pillows, they were happy to assist.

“We’ve worked with Mary and Care Cap Connections for quite a while, and they are completely dedicated to creating these items to comfort people living with cancer. We’re so happy to work with them to make recovery a little bit easier for our patients,” said Robin Dean, coordinator of the Cancer Institute’s Auxiliary Cancer Support Center located at the UAMS Family Home.

The UAMS Family Home is a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost, comfortable housing for Cancer Institute patients and parents of infants in the UAMS neonatal intensive care unit.

In addition to his support of the pillow project, Zook previously established the Florence C. Zook, R.N. Nursing Scholarship at the UAMS College of Nursing in memory of his wife’s commitment to the field of nursing and to the care she received at the Cancer Institute and at the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI), located at UAMS.

The Florence C. Zook Oncology Nursing Symposium, an annual educational seminar for oncology nurses, was established at the Cancer Institute in 2002. This year’s symposium is scheduled for Aug. 26.

“We are so grateful for the support of Mr. Zook. He has been a wonderful friend to UAMS, and we are honored to remember Florence and her passion for nursing through so many areas on campus,” Barone said.

And the giving doesn’t stop there. Two additional groups also heard about a need of cancer patients and have offered their assistance.

“Some patients leave the hospital following surgery with drains in place. Two groups have donated aprons for our patients to wear, giving them a place to discreetly hold the tubes for the drains until they can be removed,” said Maureen Smith, R.N., a nurse in the Breast Cancer Clinic.

The Acteens group at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock and students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville have decorated and delivered aprons that are now being distributed to patients.

“These aprons and pillows are touching ways for groups to help our patients with their healing process,” Smith said.

The UAMS Division of Breast Surgical Oncology is headed by V. Suzanne Klimberg, M.D., professor in the Departments of Surgery and Pathology in the UAMS College of Medicine.