Cancer survivor dedicates himself to giving back
Bob Isaac has always been a man who believes in giving back to his community. So when Isaac received a cancer diagnosis nearly two years ago, he knew what he had to do.
He would do everything he needed to regain his health. And he would step in to help those who were traveling down similar roads.
“I think it makes a difference,” Isaac said. “When you’re trying to help, patients can sometimes say, ‘You haven’t been through what I’ve been through.’ But I have been through some of what they’re going through. And I think that gives them hope.”
Honored in June as a Volunteer of the Year at Southwest Virginia Cancer Center in Norton where he has been helping out for more than a year, Isaac is all about hope.
Even before the cancer diagnosis, Isaac’s philosophy was: If you see a need, you should step in to fill it. And ever since his retirement in 1994, he has worked hard to volunteer with and participate in local boards, commissions and charities – believing his involvement could make a difference.
“I like to stay busy,” Isaac said. “I believe you can’t complain about something not being right if you don’t try to help change it.” Plus he added with a chuckle, “I’d drive my wife crazy if I stayed home.”
When Isaac was told he had prostate cancer two year ago, he listened to his options, chose to undergo external radiation, tried to follow everything the doctors told him to do and looked forward to good health – and a chance to help.
“Pat Adkins, a patient advocate at Southwest Virginia Cancer Center, told me she needed some volunteers at the cancer center,” Isaac said. “I signed up.”
Isaac wanted to make a difference, and he has, according to Cristal Meade, the cancer center’s clinical manager of radiation oncology.
“Bob has volunteered a lot of his time here at the cancer center,” Meade said. “He is always in the background, picking up supplies for us, doing whatever he can to help the doctors and nurses do what they need to do.
“And he’s such a giving person. He is able to help so much because he understands.”
In fact, Meade said, Isaac – and other volunteers like him – play a key role in producing the comfortable, hometown feeling that makes the Norton cancer center so special.
Isaac, too, is pleased with the impact he has had at the cancer center.
“If you do things and you feel appreciated, there’s a satisfaction in that alone,” he said. “It gives you incentive to carry on.”
And Isaac fully intends to carry on. His involvement has grown from bringing blankets to patients to helping to make sure they have things to make the entire experience a little easier, like donated lunches and cold drinks, courtesy of local businesses.
“It seems like I’m not only there on Wednesdays,” Isaac said. “I feel like I’m there just about every day, making sure everyone has what they need.”
It’s clear Isaac doesn’t mind the busy schedule or his continued involvement with at the center. His health is good right now, he has a wife of 51 years he treasures, children and grandchildren he adores and the chance – once again – to give back to his Southwest Virginia home.
“As long as I feel good, I don’t mind doing things,” Isaac said. “It gives me satisfaction.”
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