The new salon in the Sunshine Room offers a bright and private room for hair styling and wig fittings. UNCHARTED.MEDIA
Donor-funded Sunshine Room reopening after five long years, welcoming cancer patients back to therapeutic space
A cancer care journey includes more than the medical treatments and the physical impacts that patients experience. It affects someone’s entire life, including their emotional and mental well-being.
For nearly two decades, the donor-supported and volunteer-led Sunshine Room offered patients a calming, therapeutic space to access services like wig fitting and massage therapy, connect with cancer support networks and recharge from the stress of treatments.
But when the world shut down in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, so did the Sunshine Room. Its home on the 11th floor of the QEII’s Victoria Building was reclaimed for much-needed critical treatment space.
“There has been a gap since 2020 when the room closed,” shares Erin Fair, volunteer services coordinator for Cancer Care and Palliative Care at the QEII. “We had a dream that someday the Sunshine Room would return, and patients would feel that holistic support again.”
That dream came true earlier this month when the Sunshine Room reopened its doors to hundreds of patients who will benefit from its comforting walls. And it’s all possible because of support from QEII Foundation donors.
When the new space was confirmed, the Sunshine Room team was able to access donations that were earmarked for the Sunshine Room to recreate the space. Those funds have helped pay for physical construction, flooring, lighting, painting and creating a working kitchenette. Some furniture has been taken out of storage that was tucked away with the 2020 closure.
Now located on the first floor of the QEII’s Centennial Building, the Sunshine Room is just far enough from clinical space to be a reprieve from the stress and reminders of treatment.
The new space is easy to access, larger and brighter, and offers a better layout for services. Free services like massage therapy, Reiki, touch therapy, reflexology, hairstyling and wig fitting will be available on a drop-in basis, with group programs offered in the common space.
“Many of our previous Sunshine Room volunteers have been just waiting to return. Their involvement even informed how we designed the new space,” says Erin. “For instance, ensuring the chair for hair services has privacy. It can be very emotional for a patient to have their head shaved or be fitted for a wig. A bit of privacy goes a long way to offer decency and some comfort.”
All services are available on a drop-in basis, free of charge. All service providers are volunteers, who are donating their time to provide these supportive programs to patients.
Erin says that while staff and volunteers do the best they can with what they have, there are ongoing costs to offer services, such as the hair and wig program. Adding furnishings for comfortable seating, technology for music and program showings, and vital kitchen appliances to provide refreshments are also ongoing needs. There are also plans to offer even more group programming like book clubs and potluck nights, offering more opportunities for patients to come together.
“We know we can continue to enhance the space and the experience for patients,” Erin says. “Sometimes it’s the small things that have the biggest impact. We are so grateful to have a new place to call home.”
To learn more or donate to help bring more resources to the Sunshine Room, visit QE2Foundation.ca/SunshineRoom.
