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Virtua offers comprehensive cancer care as part of the Penn Medicine Virtua
Cancer Program. Virtua's alliance with Penn Medicine provides a strong,
strategic academic affiliation and the ability to build a robust oncology
clinical research program. This important partnership helps us deliver on
our promise to provide the best, most comprehensive care close to home for
families in our community.
The Best Care Close to Home
Virtua is poised tomake an even bigger difference for
the growing number of patients who depend on it for
cancer care, with a newCancer Center in
Moorestown. Likemany of Virtua’smost beloved
cancer programs, this transformative step forward to
better serve communities throughout the regionwill
require the vision and support of generous donors,
whomake possible somuch behind the scenes and
beyond thewalls of the hospital.
Each June, more than 50 children of cancer patients
fromBurlington, Camden, andGloucester counties
are taken by limo bus toCampOasis inMedford for a
day, giving the kids a chance to have fun in the
outdoors –with swimming, kayaking, sack races,
archery, zip lining, andmore –while their parents go
on a date or just relax at home.
“Any childrenwho have parents diagnosed,
who are going through the journey of
cancer survivorship, are invited to
come,” says campdirector Jackie
Miller, R.N., who founded the program
eight years ago. Their mothers or fathers
don’t even need to be treated at Virtua for
them to attend. “One of our goals is to
help themknow they’re not alone. They see other
children in the same situation they’re in.”
“Camp is one place you can come to forget about
your troubles for a littlewhile, and really just enjoy
being outside and having a lot of fun,”Miller says.
There are also arts-and-crafts activities around helping
kids copewith having a parent fighting cancer or
remembering a loved one, such as decorating and
writingmessages on pillowcases. These can open a
conversation between the children and their parents
about the diagnosis, as well as help children connect
with each other, who often exchange phone numbers
and e-mail addresses at the end of the day.
“I think it’s awonderful thing. A lot of places don’t
offer this kind of day for a child,” says Jennifer Fletcher,
whose 10-year-old twin boys, Colin andDrew, have
been attendingCampOasis for the past
three years.
Children dealing with a cancer diagnosis at home can put
their worries aside for a day at Camp Oasis.