Thyme Care was born out of a collective desire to help individuals with cancer navigate through their complex health journey. A journey that many don’t realize comes with so much beyond endless doctors appointments and side effects–these are people that need wheelchairs so they can witness their daughter graduate, cell phones to call their doctor when something doesn’t feel “right," or a reliable way to get to and from their treatment. They need someone to support them emotionally and remind them they’re not alone.
Every week our Care Team highlights a handful of member interactions to share the impact we’ve made; an intentional effort to reward our team for their efforts and a way to keep our why at the forefront of our day-to-day work. A purposeful reminder that on the other side of the phone is an individual that, before Thyme Care, has been facing these hardships alone.
I was talking with one of our Nurses on Friday and she told me about how one of our members (I’ll call him Joe) had just received his third cancer diagnosis. Quickly jumping in to see how she could help lessen the burden of this devastating news, he revealed that he didn’t have transportation to get to appointments, had no cell phone, struggled to walk and didn’t have a wheelchair, and was fearful of losing his home due to looming medical bills.
In the few months that we’ve been supporting Joe, our team has secured him multiple grants to help lessen his financial burden, coordinated a transfer to a treatment facility in his neighborhood that qualified him for free transportation, managed the process to secure him a free wheelchair and cell phone, and enrolled him in a program for in-home assistance, meal deliveries and utilities.
I’m so moved by the relationship our team has built with Joe, and the dedication to improving his quality of life as he navigates yet another devastating diagnosis. But I’m also sad, sad that Joe had to do this alone for so long. These individuals are my motivation, they are the reason we are here today and why we will continue to work together to solve these issues. I believe it’s our responsibility to raise awareness around the barriers that these individuals are facing within our existing healthcare systems–they deserve more.
Our team has been working tirelessly over the past year to get to this point, and while we are proud of the impact we’ve made to date alongside Clover Health, we look forward to expanding Thyme Care’s services and continuing to provide as many individuals affected by cancer the support they need and deserve.