Charlotte Maxwell Clinic Board President Lynne Srinivasan shares with us her thoughts on the clinic, current times, and beyond.

CMC has been offering integrative health services, free of charge, to low-income women with cancer for nearly 30 years. Our volunteer practitioners provide massage, acupuncture, energy work, movement therapy, western and Chinese herbs, and nutrition education to over 200 women in various stages of western medicine cancer treatment. These modalities help our clients manage the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual stresses of living with cancer.

In January 2020, CMC was in the early stages of reimagining our fundraising model and outreach. Two months later Covid-19 hit and we had to suspend our in-person services. To continue supporting our clients, our staff quickly developed the CMC Zoom Wellness Program that provides stress management techniques, self-massage, nutrition information, and gentle exercise.

We are now reimaging differently than we had first thought and the opportunities are vast. While in-person services are best (as attested to by our clients) and we look forward to re-opening the clinic sometime in 2021, this pandemic has allowed us to expand our services to those who might not be able to get to the clinic due to the severity of their side effects or to those who would like to receive treatments more frequently. We have also been able to create community among our clients that has been embraced during this time of isolation.

While staying at home, I found an old journal of poems I wrote from 1978-1988. They remind me of all the good the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic provides to our clients.

As my life leads on,

   it leads me to places

Where I am able to

   sit and think

About how I feel inside.

Thoughts revolve around

   beneath the surface

Not daring to come out.

And when my innerself

   decides to unburden me,

It leaves me in peace.

-Lynne Srinivasan, 1982