Betty Pennington

Betty Pennington

Volunteer at the Centra Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center

Seventy-nine-year-old Betty Pennington’s volunteer story began years ago. Betty said, “I started working at Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital, and I probably did eight years of volunteer work there in three different departments.” After her husband became ill, she said, “I felt the need to be home.” However, she returned to volunteering soon after he passed away 12 years ago. Betty said, “I decided when the cancer center opened that I would like to be a volunteer there.”

She explained, “My husband had several kinds of cancer at different times and recurrence a couple of times, so I was familiar with how to talk to him, be positive, be patient, and be encouraging. We went through maybe 15 years of cancer off and on.” She continued, “I started working there from the very beginning. I did some tours opening night, and I’ve been at the information desk since then.”

“At the cancer center, everything is done to try and make the patient comfortable, make them feel at home, and make them want to go through the process,” Betty said.

Betty, talking about what it means to her to be a volunteer, said, “I think it’s a way of giving back to the community and to patients. I’ve always been interested in the medical environment, so I felt like that would be the place for me.”

Betty explained how even in the small things, she feels she can make an impact on someone’s day. She said, “There was one patient who was very lonely. He had lost his wife, and he was coming in for treatments. I would see him once a week. I went and got a puzzle, and I encouraged him to take it home. It would be something to keep his brain active, and it would be a good way to use some of his time. He took it, and he really enjoyed it.”

“The best thing is probably getting to know a lot of different people and realizing there’s so many people out there with more problems than we have, and you can be a help to them. Many of them probably don’t see anybody else all day, so you can give them a cup of coffee to drink or talk to them when they come in or are waiting for their rides. I just enjoy being with the people, talking

“The best thing is probably getting to know a lot of different people and realizing there’s so many people out there with more problems than we have, and you can be a help to them to them, and trying to make an impact on their day,” she said.

Betty highly recommended getting involved with volunteer work. She said,

“You probably get as much or more out of volunteering than the patient gets, because it’s such an uplifting thing. You realize that the little aches and pains that you have is nothing when you consider what so many patients are going through.”